The Coming Storm
by Venom Snake-117
Summary: When a Storm is coming, the most we can do is hold up and wait for it to pass over us. But now the coming storm is alive with malice and death ready to wipe out humanities and all it's creations. But Ozpin has found something that can break the storm, something that can fight the storm...and win. Re-Write in progress and posted.
1. Prologue

**A/N: Okay This is my first story, and I've reworked it. I originally decided to break up the first chapter into three smaller ones, but have since decided to go back to the original format, because I've been doing some proof reading and it's easier if it's not broken up into smaller pieces and keeping track of them.**

 **Also, far warning, this story is written with the idea the readers are up to date with Ruby at this time, which includes all four of the first 4 volumes. If you aren't, their are spoilers and probably some things that won't make sense, because I wanted to avoid as much as I could, just retelling the main series with another character. I have to do at a certain amount, but I'm trying to keep away from a whole retelling.  
**

 **I'd also like to note that I did not put this in the crossover section due to the fact that cross from multiple Thor media sources, not just one like the movies or the comics**

* * *

 **Prologue**

* * *

Ozpin wasn't sure what to think of this situation.

The boy, yes, this boy was something unusual. In his long life, he's never seen a boy quite like this one. It wasn't his talent, no. Talent, he had found in his line of work, wasn't as special as those on the outside would think. To him, all those he trained and encountered were talented, some more so than others, but they were all among the best.

It wasn't the way he carried himself either, no, again he saw all kinds of personalities, the shouters, and braggarts to the meek and quiet. No, while the boy's character was a bit odd, especially for his apparent age, it wasn't beyond what he had known.

No, what made Ozpin's mind dwell so heavily on the boy was the contradictory nature of how he carried himself. In some ways, he seemed an adult, yet at the same time, didn't understand things a child half his age should have been aware of.

He seemed both man and child in one, depending on the scenario. When it came to combat, the child was at least as knowledgeable as any adult he'd meet, the situation he'd been found in gave credence to that. He'd been found in the Forever fall forest, with three dead Beowulf's decaying around him as he tried desperately to retrieve something in a large hole in the ground.

The encroaching of more Grimm made a closer examination of what the boy was after impractical at the moment, but he'd go back to investigate later.

But the boy, despite being approximately fourteen, give or take a few years, didn't know what Grimm were, and a longer conversation made clear he didn't know about dust, aura, or even hunters.

Ozpin may have been more inclined to believe him if he hadn't dispatched three Grimm on his own, but something told him the boy wasn't lying. All that aside, these were not his most concerning issues

The crux of his conundrum was now to find where the boy was from. He matched no missing child report in Vale or any of the other kingdoms, and his name didn't match anyone on file, and there existed no last name that matched his. He supposed the boy could have been making his name up, but again he didn't feel like he was lying.

There was something honest in this boy, and something else he could feel, but too vague and diffuse to put his finger on. But whatever came in the next few day's, he was going to be watching this boy, and hopefully, lead him down a path where he may be able to do the most good.

Leaning back in his chair and looking at the folder of the information on the boy who was likely to be the next resident in the Vale Orphanage, he couldn't help but wonder where this kid came from. It was almost like he had fallen from the heavens or walked out of a dream of fantasy like he hadn't existed before he'd been found in that crater on the ground.

* * *

2 Weeks later

In his office, the Beacon Headmaster read the letter from the Vale orphanage.

As Ozpin had expected, when no one came forward to looking for the boy he was sent the Vale orphanage, and despite their best efforts, he was closed off on the subject of where he came from. Which in and of itself was a bit odd, the boy was normally quite talkative and boisterous. He treated it like a dark secret. But then again that may explain it in the end if the boy had suffered some form abuse, he may well be a runaway, and why he gave a name, no one could track.

Still, these times of observation were quite illuminating. The boy was cocky, arrogant and boastful to a fault. He challenged the other children regularly to nearly any type of contest. Not surprisingly, given his attitude and from what he'd seen, he always won.

But beneath this exterior was a kind and caring boy, with a strong sense of right and wrong. He was often seen putting bullies in their place, sharing with the younger children and cheering them up with tales of fantasy.

Where most people with his personality would have been shunned or despised, this boy was becoming a leader of the children in the home. It was truly remarkable, his ability to attract other to him. He may be cocky, but he didn't seem to have unreasonable expectations of himself or others. But most importantly he didn't abuse his gifts, he used to protect those who couldn't protect themselves.

Were it not for his unwavering ego, Ozpin thought the boy would be a perfect model of what a hunter should be, and he was only fourteen.

That combined with his apparent natural talent, he didn't think there was much point in putting off the boy's training. He'd be a late entry to the local combat school, but the boy was far cleverer than what many would assume him to be at first glance.

In few years, he'd be ready for Beacon and may represent a talent only seen once a generation.

* * *

1 week later

Things were progressing as well as he could have hoped.

The boy was in combat school, as he had intended, and was catching up to his peers at an alarming rate. What actually came as a surprise to Ozpin was the boy hadn't yet unlocked his aura, let alone his semblance before school.

The indications of this made this far more complicated than he had originally thought. What he had done in the forest was something he would have expected from one of his own first-year students. Doing so with no weapon or aura was…..disconcerting.

But for the time being, he'd only monitor the boy, he had other matters to attend to.

What the boy was after in the forest was one, but Grimm activity around it was extraordinarily high, and what was more plant growth in the area seem to have accelerated, covering it from the air.

He wanted to know what the boy was after, but not enough to risk lives over curiosity. If the area cleared up, he'd investigate, if not, well…he'd figure a way to at some point, but he was going to put it out of his mind for now. He wasn't going to rule out that what the boy was after was responsible, but as it stood, at the very least it was pulling Grimm away from Vale.

He was finding rather than getting his question answered. That boy….that boy….

* * *

1 Year later

Thumbing through the file he'd been sent, he once again found himself thinking the boy they had discovered in the wilderness.

News about the boy was not an ordinary occurrence for him anymore. He was a top-level fighter at his school, and an adept pupil, but there was only so much of the repeating information he could take before he told them only to write when something beyond his usual scope came up.

And it just so happened that was the news he was reading now. In weapons forging, the boy had once again shown a bizarre aptitude in the field. He's created a weapon unlike any of his instructor's had seen before.

Most students tried to make a weapon that complimented their style and semblance, but the boy had gone far beyond that. Now it wasn't as though other students hadn't gone down the same path before, it was doable for sure. But most ended up with weapons with feature and abilities they didn't often use or didn't work well with their semblance or fighting style and most fazed them out to make their weapon more streamlined and lighter.

But the boy hadn't, he was dead set on the weapon system he was building, and his teachers said it almost seemed like the fervor of someone trying to reclaim something lost. But that was ridiculous of course.

Ozpin had seen some of the schematics for the weapon, or rather weapon system. And that was what was really unique about this compared to other weapons students had made, or even other hunters. His weapon was a part weapon, part…He supposed armor, but the two were linked and operated with each other. He didn't believe he'd ever seen a student put this much thought into a weapon before. If it worked the way he intended, it might be unrivaled compared to his peers.

But he was sure of one thing, it was dangerous, and not just to his opponents, but to the user as well. There was so much that could go wrong, and how he was powering it left a lot to chance. The boy was cocky, but now Ozpin though he might think himself invincible.

If the boy's ambition went beyond the safety parameters, he'd have to be stopped. But Ozpin was curious, the boy was full of surprises, and maybe he'd surprise him again.

* * *

1 Year Later

Ozpin sat in his office, thinking of the past few years, and pondered what the next four years would bring.

A lot had happened in the past few months. The first years coming this year were an extraordinary group, possibly the most skilled as a general group he'd ever seen.

Ruby Rose, a child prodigy who he let in two years early, her older sister Yang, one of the most talented close quarter's fighters he'd ever seen. Weiss Schnee, the heiress to her father's company, and a girl of extraordinary talents. Blake Belladonna, a girl with worldly experience that some full-fledged hunters couldn't boast.

Jaune Arc, a boy from a long line of hunters…With no real talent, aside from apparent forgery, but he had something in him, like the boy, something of power inside him. The boy himself, the child found in the woods, with dead Grimm surrounding him.

Pyrrha Nikos, who maybe the most famous young fighter in the world, with a reputation that was entirely deserved. Lie Ren, a young man who had seen much in his short life, and it pushed him to new heights, and his close friend Nora, who came from the same background, yet seem to have gone the opposite way regarding personality, yet unmatched him in head-on combat.

Those nine would cause some things to shake in the school. Besides the fact that more than a few were known to be quiet boisterous. But they were all good at heart, even the braggart boy. He hoped they all passed initiation tomorrow, they were all full of potential, which he'd hate to see go to waste.

Looking through the files, his eye's landed on the boys. Still a mystery in many ways to him, yet he was sure of the boy's character.

And with that though, his mind wanders back to the forest where he'd been found more than two years ago. He was after something, something Ozpin had never manage to actually find out what. He had investigated the area, but the Grimm made it hard to stay long. What he'd seen what an empty crater, overgrown with vegetation.

Was it even still there? Was it ever even there? But if not why were the Grimm and vegetation around it acting so oddly? Could it be the boy himself had left some sort of mark on the earth without knowing it?

Maybe, but he wasn't sure. Whatever the boy was after, he'd either lost interest in it or had put it out of his mind, as he hadn't tried to go after it since he had been recovered.

Ozpin started to must to himself, something he had found himself wondering about for the past two years.

"What is it you were after, Thor Odinson?"

Day of Initiation

"RAAAAHHH"

The voice behind Ruby causes her to jump what felt like ten feet in the air, deploy the weapon and turn ready to fight the presumed Ursa behind her.

What greeted her was a large man, or should she say, boy? He couldn't be older than the students attending beacon.

He was tall, well over six feet tall, and broad shouldered. He had long, flowing blonde hair and bright blue eyes. Blue eye's alight with the smile the graced his lip, despite the weapon pointed him.

He was chuckling as well, and Ruby felt her blood boil, was he trying to scare her? Was she some kind of joke to him?

"I'm sorry if I startled you, I'm just so excited to finally be starting at a true school for warriors." He said, and he pushed Crescent rose down away from his face.

Ruby, however, her face dropped from a startled and angry, to one of mild confusion. The way he was speaking was…..not normal. It wasn't exactly foreign, but it wasn't the way normal people spoke. It had the air of someone from a movie she'd seen a long time ago.

Before she could think more on it, he was walking past her, still smiling.

Then he did something that totally infuriated her. He put his giant hand on her head and ruffled her hair saying "Good luck little one."

Her cheeks turned red with mortification, and she turned to shout at him, but he didn't break a step as he headed to the orientation hall, apparently not a care in the world.

She was about to take after him and give him a piece of her mind, but as she took after him, she tripped over something, barking her shins hard.

* * *

This was home, or at least as close as he was liable to get here. He could smell it in the air, the excitement of the other students, the eagerness to fight.

He'd prove himself, here or soon after. That's what he was destined to, as always. Even with only a fraction his true might, he had dominated all who stood before him, and these beasts, the monsters of Grimm, but pale imitations of the monsters he'd face, like comparing a flea to a dog.

Now was his time to shine, to prove he was worthy, once again.

As he strolled into the main hall, he saw other students looking at him. He was an impressive looking man, he knew, his build and height made him a standout among most of the other students. But he also knew he walked with a swagger most new students didn't have. That combined with the fact he could grow a beard, whereas most of the other male student's only had peach fuzz, well, he stood out, to say the least.

Well, that and he was loudly announcing his pleasure at his new school.

He also noticed the glances of more than few female students, one in particular caught his eye, a blonde with lilac eyes.

Her gaze lingered a bit too long to be a curiosity at the loud newcomer. Catching her eye he winked, kissed the air at her ever so briefly and flexed his impressive biceps.

She turned away quickly, in disgust or embarrassment he wasn't sure, but he frankly didn't care all that much. He was here to show this world what the Mighty Thor could do.

* * *

That Night

It didn't take Yang long to figure out from Ruby's description of her day that the person who had startled her so badly was the same loud mouth who came into the assembly hall shouting and announcing his presence as if he was come conquering hero fresh from the battle.

By God, he was loud. She could see how he'd startled her, especially after she had ditched her and left her to sink or swim on her own. Given her account of what else had gone on, with that Schnee girl, maybe her attempt to get her introverted sister to spread her wings was not as well thought out as she had originally thought.

She'd caught a glimpse of him earlier, he was hard to miss. Of all the first year students, there was only a handful a big as he was. Another was almost as big, and had a similar air about him, but not nearly loud about it.

The look he gave her, well, she was used to being the one flirting with the boys, most weren't that confident to do it to her. It made her feel like she was put on the back heel, and she didn't like it.

She listened to Ruby rant about him, she was clearly embarrassed he'd managed to startle her so effectively by accident. But she had managed to raise her spirits when she had met that boy, Jaune Arc. She'd found out the same incident had caused the boy to jump in a panic as well, but whereas Ruby had managed to land on her feet and draw her weapon, Jaune completely panicked, thrown his own weapon into the air and crumple to the ground.

She'd heard from Ruby that he only thanked Providence that Ruby's reaction had so much more dramatic and impressive looking, not to mention close to the actual source of disturbance, that his little incident had gone mostly unnoticed.

Yang thoughts wander from the braggart to the Arc kid. While she was happy, Ruby had made at least one friend, easing her own guilt somewhat. She wished her first new friend her wasn't a boy, given how young she was. It wasn't that she didn't believe boys and girls couldn't be platonic friends, no not that, but …well she couldn't help but think it. She was younger, and not terribly experience in dealing with boys her own age, and Jaune was two years older.

Granted, the boy was, from what little she'd seen of him, a complete weeny. Well, if there were one guy in the school she'd feel safe letting Ruby be around, at least right now, Jaune was probably the safest bet. Not like the big bastard who made sure everyone and their mother needed to know he had bothered to grace them with his presence.

And just like that, her mind had wandered back to the big oaf. Between what he'd done to Ruby and that damn gesture he had given her, he had pretty effectively already gotten on her bad side, and she hadn't even had a conversation with him yet. He just oozed the air of those jerks who thought because they were athletic and good looking they could act how they wanted.

But, she knew she could come off like that sometimes, and being on the outside, looking in, it was a bit irritating. Maybe she needed to tone it down a bit? She hoped she didn't come off like, she didn't think she did, but maybe she just didn't know it? Maybe this was one of those things you just didn't notice about yourself until someone pointed it out to you?

Maybe he didn't know either…..

With that thought, she realized she didn't even know his name.

This was bit embarrassing, at least internally, she was judging him, and she didn't know his name or had even spoken to him. This was not the type of person she wanted to be, this judgmental and jumping to conclusions.

It's not that she wanted to be friends with him or even really get to know him, but she didn't want to get into a habit like this.

* * *

As Jaune changed into his pajama, his mind wandered to his day, not what he'd call an excellent first day. He's started by making himself look like a total coward and wuss. He was only thankful Ruby's reaction drew more attention, saving him some embarrassment. Not all, unfortunately, and just as was his luck, it was a drop dead gorgeous girl, with the most beautiful blue eyes and long white hair, he'd never seen someone so…..angelic. And he'd made a total buffoon of himself in front of her. Her name, he found out later was Weiss Schnee, and it rang a bell to him, but he couldn't remember where he had heard it before.

But again Ruby had helped him out, inadvertently but still, she had blown both herself and the white-haired girl up in a dust accident.

He didn't want any harm to come to either of them, but it may over shadow his own pathetic episode minutes prior. He knew how these sort of things worked in a school, the student body would move on to the next embarrassing or extraordinary event. In few day's, both these events would be forgotten.

That big guy though, the one that had scared him. He was exactly what Jaune was trying to portray himself as, a confident warrior, powerfully built, and at his ease even with a weapon pointed at his face.

Now he was thinking he might want to change how he was going to try and portray himself. He didn't find the that guy's personality particularly pleasant. Granted, he was hoping to meet a girl, not another guy, but Ruby wasn't too fond of him, and neither was her sister from what little he had heard from her about.

Frankly, even if girls were into that type of guy, and he supposed some were, he wasn't going to compete with him in any regard. Jaune was fairly tall, in relatively good shape, and his blonde hair and blue eye's had gotten a little attention from the girls at his old school. Granted none of them were the popular girls, and he'd never actually gotten a date, but he knew that some girls liked that.

But he looked like a cheap knock off compared to this guy. For starters, he was about half a foot taller than him, and while Jaune wasn't out of shape, this guy looked like the professional fighters in the Mixed Martial Arts fights his dad like to watch, and not the ones on low-end competition either, he looked like a champion. His hair was blond like his, but whereas Jaune could never really get his hair to behave, this guy's long flowing hair was bright and untangled. They both had blue eye's, but his eye looked confident, where he knew he looked scared.

That was the other thing, Jaune had tried to have an air of confidence like his dad had said, but it was an act. That guy's confidence was either completely genuine, or he was a much better actor than Jaune.

No, he'd need another approach if he wanted to make any headway, trying to be that guy, would not only end in failure, but he really didn't want to anymore.

The guy seemed like a jerk, and that's not who he wanted to be.

* * *

Ruby wasn't certain how she felt about sleeping in a room full of boys. Yang in typical fashion was throwing looks at all the boys, most of whom were in simple t-shirts and sleep pants. Then there was Jaune, wearing an onsie, and Ruby had to do her best not laugh at him. He was nice, as Yang has pointed out, and possibly her only friend beside her sister right now, she didn't want to hurt his feelings.

Given her first 24 hours at Beacon so far, her time here was not looking up. Between her run in with that big guy and Weiss, she was counting herself at negative 1 friend so far. Granted, the big guy, who name she didn't even know yet, hadn't seemed to be angry or upset with her, but he was flippant with how he had scared her, and frankly, she was still upset with him.

Speaking of the big lummox, she hadn't seen him yet. He was hard to miss, his size alone made him stand out but combined with his hair as bright as Yang's and a big obnoxious attitude that made Yang seem like a modest maiden, it wasn't likely he hadn't come in yet. She was sort of hoping maybe he'd done something to get himself kicked out of the building for the night.

"Maybe he even got kicked out of the school." She mumbled to herself.

This killed her line of thought dead. That was an unusually vindictive thing of her to think, especially about someone she'd only really had one passing interaction.

Shaking her head, she decided to chalk it up to just having a bad first day.

Bemoaning her poor luck on her first day, she hadn't even noticed Yang pulling her towards the girl had stood up for her against Weiss.

Although Yang attempts to get the conversation going and only getting a name out of her, Blake Belladonna, it was evident to Ruby that she was more interested in her book than them. It wasn't until Ruby asked about the book itself they got a real response.

But before they got a real conversation going, Blake stopped talking with her mouth hanging open, her eye's wide and face beat red.

"What is it…" Ruby said, turning to look at what had caught Blake's attention.

She felt her face flush with blood at sight before her. Whereas most of the boy had decided to dawn sleep pants and t-shirts, and Jaune an onsie, the young man who had startled her so badly had opted to sleep almost completely naked, save a pair of boxers.

It wasn't that Ruby hadn't ever seen anything like this before, but for the love of God, he looked like a damn model. His toned body with golden hair catching the light from overhead seemed to glow.

Looking back at Blake, the girl chewing her bottom lip, mesmerized by the god-like form of the student as he walked past.

That was weird, she thought, Ruby was a bit flustered, but Blakes was totally mesmerized. Taking a look back, she wondered what had her so transfixed, before she felt someone shoving her shoulder.

"Okay, little sister that's enough eye candy, for now, you need your sleep."

Turning to faced her sister, who had the biggest smirk on her face, which made Ruby flush even redder.

"Just shut up Yang! Just…..Shut up!" she said as she stomped back to her sleeping bag.

* * *

Yang giggled to herself as Ruby embarrassment, was that why she was ranting about this guy so hard? She had a little crush on the big loud pretty boy. She supposed she should have expected something like this to happen at some point, a lot of girls fall for a pretty jerk at some point, she knew she had once.

Looking at Blake, she noticed the other girl was reacting much harder than Ruby, which was more perplexing. Blake had given the impression of a much cooler customer and seemed more mature than other students. She looked like totally infatuated with the slab of meat, her face beat read, eyes as wide a saucers and absent mildly chewing her lip.

"Hey, Blake?"

That startled her back to reality. "What?" she said looking a bit dazed at Yang.

"You okay?"

"Yes…why…."

"Girly, you were practically drooling over that guy!" She said, laughter ringing in her voice.

"No! I was just…..thinking really hard!" she shot back, her face getting red again.

"Hey I'm not gonna judge you, I mean, I like your taste in looks, he's an excellent piece of tail, but maybe wait to see more of him before you go weak at the knees over him," Yang said as she walked off to get some sleep. Leaving Blake sputtering.

* * *

She was mortified at how she had just acted, she hadn't lost her cool like that in years, especially not over a guy. But damn it, he was hot! Flaunting his body like that, and she could even smell him, and good lord his aroma was unlike any she'd ever smelled before, and she meant that beyond just being unique to an individual. He didn't smell like a human or Faunus, he was close, but he just smelt…..better than either. That, combined with his look and care freeway of walking around in his underwear, put her into sensory overload.

With her wits back, and the embarrassment dying down, her reasoning section of her brain came back, and her lust faded away for confusion. His smell, that's what sent her overboard, it wasn't really human or Faunus, it was similar but is different from both as those two were from each other.

He had her interest, and not, she told herself, as a prospective boyfriend. She wanted to know what he was.

* * *

Thor awoke the next day, ready for battle. Getting out of his sleeping bag he stretched his back and arms, yawning. Looking around, he noticed several other prospective students rising, some have clearly been up for some time.

Creaking his next, he decided to get a shower, then breakfast. Heading towards the showers, he felt…..off. He didn't know what it was, but he didn't feel normal.

Shaking his head, he made his way to the showers and quickly scrubbed himself clean. While he did so, he pondered on the other students, not all would be allowed in, that he knew. He didn't know any specifics of what the test would be today, but he was aware that the numbers accepted students was much lower than the number of students who applied.

He would, of course, be one of those who made it in, but he had felt out the other students. His loud personality not only drew their attention to him, which he always appreciated but let him see a few their reactions.

The one girl he startled the entrance was interesting. She was clearly younger than the other applying students, but of all the students, she was the only one drew her weapon on him. She was a bit skittish, overreacting, but quick and graceful on the draw.

He marked her as one of tremendous latent talent, but less experience than the other student.

The boy he'd seen, however, he was clearly out of his league. He acted like a scared rabbit, he was almost certainly not going to make it in.

There were others of renown already at this school The Nikos girl was world famous, and he would beat her in the ring, and show the world his might.

The heiress to the Schnee Dust company was in attendance as well, supposedly a great talent in many fields. She'd be one to watch.

Getting out of the shower, he headed to the cafeteria. Beacon was supposed to have a huge selection of food for the students, and he planned on taking every advantage of it.

* * *

"What a barbarian!" Weiss muttered to herself, as she watches the giant blonde shovel food down like an animal. He'd already eaten four times as much as the two students on either side of him combined, with no signs of slowing down, it was disgusting, and she lost what little appetite she had.

"I know right!" a voice from her left said. She didn't need to turn to know it was Ruby, who was making attempts to mend any damage done their nonexistent relationship, Weiss ignored her.

Looking back to the savage as he gorged himself. It was like a trainwreck, she couldn't look away, and she wasn't the only one, a number of students were transfixed by the spectacle.

Getting up from the table, Weiss decided she didn't want to watch anymore and headed to the locker room.

* * *

Thor opened his locker and pulled out the weapon he'd spent years perfecting, to recapture some semblance of his old life.

It was in three parts. First, he affixed the vest, checking all the disks were properly set and functioning. He pulled on the belt next, checking it similarly.

Then he pulled out the hammer, not like his actual hammer at all. This weapon was larger and two-handed and looked more like an ax in many respects, the blocky hammer head mirrored by a broad ax head. Holstering it on the back of his vest, he headed out to scope out the competition.

He notices the Nikos girl and the Schnee girl talking with the boy he'd seen yesterday, and the Schnee girl seems agitated, which didn't surprise him, from what little he'd seen of her and what he'd heard about her, she was a little high strung.

But the red head, Pyrrha Nikos, she was supposedly the strongest student applying, well he wanted to make his intention clear from the start, no hard feeling, but better to get it out of the way now.

He marched over to them, a giant grin plastering his face, and the boy caught notice of him, and his face fell.

"Hello!" he bellowed getting the girls attention as well. The Schnee girl looked agitated, the Pyrrha looked politely interested.

"Pyrrha Nikos, I presume." He said extending his hand, which she took, smiling and shaking while responding.

"Yes, and who might you be?" she said a politely as could be.

"Thor, Thor Odinson, I must say I'm a fan of yours, you are truly a great warrior."

Her face faltered a little at this, but she regained her composure nearly instantly.

"Why thank you, it's always nice to meet a fan."

"Yes, you are the strongest student her as far as it's known, but I just wanted talk to you for a moment."

"If it's about the teams I believe…"

"No." he cut her off, smiling all the time "No, I just wanted to let you know, I'll be challenging you in our first combat class, to show this school who the real number one is, is that all right?"

The others went silent, Jaune seemingly not sure how to respond, and Weiss looking like she'd just been poleaxed.

* * *

Pyrrha was shocked for a moment at his declaration, there was no malice in his voice that she could detect, and he seemed entirely genuine on the idea of taking her off the top.

She was so used to having people putting her on a pedestal, this frank deceleration of pre-emptive victory was entirely unexpected.

He didn't break his smile, so she responded: "I'd like that, once we're both students of course."

Smiling and nodding he headed off on his own while punching Jaune in the arm saying "Good luck out there today champ."

* * *

"The nerve! Who does that barbarian think he is!" Weiss ranted in Pyrrha's defense. But Pyrrha didn't seem at all bothered by the cocky nature of Thor. In fact, she seemed excited.

"Come on you two we need to get to the cliffs."

* * *

All Thor though was "landing strategy?", he'd get to the relics before he even touched the ground, and find a partner, the first you made eye contact with?

He didn't need a partner, and frankly, he doubted any of other students could be able to get to the relics before he'd gotten one and got back.

But there were Grimm to fight and kill, so he might as well have some fun, but he'd get the relic first, secure his place, and then run wild.

As he readied himself to launch into the air, he pulled his hammer off his back, ready. The next moment he was soaring through the air. It took him a moment get his bearings, but then he started to spin his hammer, and as he began to descend, launched himself towards where he had been told the relics were.

* * *

Chess pieces? Well, he supposed that wasn't surprising, given what he knew about Ozpin, these were surely representative of something. What that was he had no idea, but he wasn't here to figure out that man's mind.

He grabbed the Gold King and headed into the forest to have some fun with the Grimm. He'd take a few Grimm down, maybe even meet a partner while he was at it, but right now his first concern was killing some Grimm.

* * *

"How boring." He said to himself and the bodies of several Grimm dissolved, these Grimm were hardly a challenge, he didn't even break a sweat. He needed something bigger to hold his interest.

Sighing he was thinking of just heading back. What was the point of this now? He had his chess piece, and fighting the Grimm here was like stepping on ants.

He knew there were stronger Grimm than this, he'd read all about them, but these were the most common and the weakest. These creature couldn't even kill his boredom.

"Might as well head back, no point in wasting…." He was cut off when he heard the cry of Grimm of enormous size and felt his blood boil.

"Time to have some fun."

With that, he was off in search of the disturbance.

From the air, Thor could see the scene, a Death Stalker of great size in front, a swarm of Beowulfs to the rear, and the largest Nevermore he'd ever seen personally circling the group of eight.

They were all students he recognized, the girl he'd scared, Pryyha and Weiss, the boy. The other's he'd seen around but hadn't had any real interaction with.

AS he descended from the air, he channeled the power of his hammer, mixing his aura with lighting dust and his semblance to do what he was so good at.

* * *

Yang wasn't one to panic, but she was getting there, they were surrounded on the ground, and covered in the air. They had planned on just getting the hell out of dodge, but the arrival of more Grimm made that too dangerous at the moment.

As it stood, she believed they could fight their way out, but it would be a dangerous and exhausting experience.

The Beowulf seemed to be ready to move in, one at the front was looking particularly eager.

But before it even made it move, Yang heard the loudest crack of Thunder she'd ever heard in her life, and a blinding flash of light followed. Covering her eye's, Yang's heart jumped into her chest.

"What the hell?!" she heard several of her fellow students shouted. That was exactly what she was thinking, what was going on? A new Grimm? Maybe help had arrived.

As she uncovered her eyes, as the light faded she saw the outline of a tall, broad shouldered man.

"Oh no." was all she had time to say and the loud, boisterous voice broke through.

"Do you need some help my friends?!" that smile still gracing his lips.

Looking him dead in the eye as he smiled, she was ready to say no, but then she noticed the charred bodies of every single Beowulf that had been cornering them.

Her jaw dropped as Pryyha called out.

"Thor, thank you so much, we were in a tight spot there."

It was odd, but hearing his name was, weird, as she realized that up till now she hadn't known it. Thor huh? A weird name, but he had just wiped out a pack of Beowulf's, she wasn't going to complain.

She looked to the rest of the group, and they were equally impressed, although reactions individually were quietly varied. Ruby had gone starry-eyed, apparently forgetting her previous irritation with him. Weiss looked like she was chewing the inside of her cheek. Jaune looked pale, and Pyrrha had a smile on her face.

Yang turned her gaze back to Thor, as he walked forward with an air of confidence she tried to carry herself with like nothing could touch him. His weapon in hand, head high and shoulder squared, he looked every inch the hero they were trying to be.

He looked her in the eye, and winked at her again, causing a minor blush to form in her cheeks. What the hell? They were still in a dire situation and yet he still found time to flirt? Her fluster broke when he spoke again.

"Do you want the Death Stalker of Nevermore, I'll let you pick."

The whole group looked confused, what did he mean?

Thor looked confused as well, the spoke again "Look if you don't choose in the next few seconds, I'll just pick for you."

They all looked back and forth to each other, he didn't mean what they are all thinking, did he?

"Alright, I'll choose." He said and started spinning his hammer at speed Yang would have thought impossible, and faster than even she could react, flew past them just above the ground and hit the Death Stalker hard enough to flip it onto its back.

They all were jaw dropped, except Pryyha, who was the first regain composure, and get everyone attention on her.

* * *

Thor had chosen the Death Stalker because it was an inherently tougher Grim than the Nevermore, far less mobile, but its shell made it harder to kill with brute force.

And he wanted a challenge. After the initial attack where he had splayed it out, it had recovered and was fighting back.

It was putting up a good fight, as he ducked and dodged its attack. All while hammering it with heavy blows from his hammer, charged with electricity. Its armor was cracking as he continued, but it was clearly hurt by the others.

No matter, if he finished it quickly enough, he'd be able to kill the Nevermore as well.

Channeling his semblance again, he used the dust in his vest to call the wind that froze its limbs in place.

Once it was unable to move, he brought his hammer down one last time.

* * *

Ozpin watch the two teams quickly took down the Nevermore, but what was more surprising was Thor's ability to kill the Death Stalker on his own. What was more he seemed to enjoy it? Truly a talent to watch, but he had a problem.

No one had claimed his opposite piece, and he hadn't encountered any student who didn't already have a partner. He had no partner and no team. Yet he had accomplished the task given to him, and gaining a partner hadn't explicitly been given as part of the task in order to succeed.

Thor sat there, staring at the floor, despondent. How could this be? No team, no partner, no progression into the hunter's world. How could he of been this stupid, he hadn't bothered to partner with anyone, he just rushed in bull-headed as always to seize the victory? What was more, he had no team.

He was done as a hunter, he'd be stripped of his weapons, and no longer allowed to do what he did best, battle evil, save the meek. He was done here, and by extension, barred from his real home.

Putting his head in his hands, he started to breathe slowly. Why did he always do this? Was it his nature, to act first, think second? No, he didn't believe so, but he had royally screwed himself here.

* * *

Why did he always shoot himself in the foot? Tossing his hammer aside, he started to punch the wall, denting it, as he heard the teams called out.

He was angry at Ozpin, the other teams and mostly at himself. He knew how these things went, he'd read about them, but in his arrogance, he'd wanted to prove his own power and prowess.

Pride, it was always his pride. Damn himself! He was successful in his goals, yet failed because of his pride and arrogance.

Slamming his fist into the wall again as heard the weak boy named as team leader.

Slumping down against the wall, he was getting ready to face expulsion.

* * *

"Well, Mr. Odinson, you have failed to find a team," Ozpin said to him as he looked at the floor. "Or even a partner for that matter, you rushed in, no strategy to speak of, and no forethought."

Thor, simply look dejectedly at the ground.

"However." Ozpin continued, causing Thor to look up at him. "You fulfilled every prerequisite of completing initiation, and we never made finding a partner or team part of the passing score."

Feeling hope stir in his chest, Thor stayed quiet to listen.

"Now this is a most unusual circumstance, we can't have you operating on your own, despite your talent, part of the curriculum involves teamwork. Your lack of a partner or team, can't go unaddressed, so we've come up with a solution."

Thor's heart was hammering in his chest, so he hadn't failed yet.

"The first student, you made eye contact with, Yang Xiao Long, already had a partner at the time so you can't be partnered with her, but we're going to try a new program." He said as he sipped his coffee.

"In the real world hunters or teams of hunters may sometimes hire a freelance agent to supplement there, you're going act as this to the first year's students on team missions. They may request you, or if we feel the need for additional manpower on a mission, we will assign you. In any other regard, you'll be a typical student." He said smirking.

A huge smile broke out over Thor's face. "Thank you, you won't regret letting me stay." He said shaking his hand and heading out the room.

Ozpin smirked as he walked out, his swagger back, and wondered how long it would take him to realize he'd not given him a bedroom assignment yet.

* * *

"It's a shame that Thor guy didn't make it past initiation, he had such a cool weapon!" Ruby gushed, and Yang rolled her eyes, as she lay on her new bed in their shared dorm.

"You wouldn't stop trash talking him four hours ago, now you think he's the greatest thing since sliced bread." She was a bit irritated at her sister flightiness, but the girl was too damn enduring to really get her mad at her.

"Yang! Didn't you see him, he swung that hammer all 'FOFUFUFUFUFUA'" she said mimicking his movements and making a helicopter sounds to imitate the noise his hammer made when he spun it. "Then he was all "KAAR-AACKK!'" She said thing time imitating his lighting attack. "Then he threw it, and it came back to him, Yang….I think I'm in love." She sighed.

This caused Yang, along with Weiss and Blake to cut their eyes quickly at Ruby.

"That hammer, I mean, I'd never replace my baby, but wow what a weapon."

The tension in the room immediately dissipated, it was just her sister being her normal weapon's obsessed self.

Weiss spoke up after the momentary silence following Ruby's gushing over Thor's hammer. "I think it's best he isn't staying, he didn't bother to form a team or partnership with anyone. He was a beast, cocky and had no table manners."

Yang sniffed at this "You're just jealous, you saw that freak right? He tore through those Grimm like tissue paper."

Weiss just sniffed at this a turned her nose up "As if, he may have raw power, but he's still and unrefined beast!"

Not wanting to push the issue, Yang signed and thought of the guy. He was absolutely fantastic in the field, he'd wiped out a pack of Beowulf's like nothing, then handled the Death Stalker they were having issues with as a team, by himself with fair ease.

It didn't seem fair, or that someone like that should exist, not at the level they all were. He was more in line with a fully trained hunter from what they'd seen.

She was broken out of her stupor by a knock at the door.

They all looked at each other, curious as to who would be calling at this hour. Shrugging, Ruby walked to the door and opened it, and they all got a nice little surprise.

* * *

Ruby yelped as Thor strode into the room, carrying his bag over his shoulder, smile plastering his face.

"Hello! It appears we are to be bunk mates!" he called as he tossed his bag on the floor and survived the room. "I see there is only four bed at the moment, don't fear, I will be the gentleman and sleep on the floor." He said as he nodded and bowed to each of the girls in turn, before retrieving his bag and pulling out his bed roll and setting up in the corner, then plopping down on it to take off his boots.

"But…how….?" Weiss stammered. "You weren't assigned a team, you didn't even get a partner! How are you still here?! And why are you in our room!"

"Well," Thor said as he sat on his bed roll, looking like he was genuinely pondering a hard question. "I suppose they just couldn't let someone as handsome as I just leave." He said with a face that looked as serious as death.

Team RWBY looked at him, dumbfounded for a several seconds before they saw his lips crack a smile.

"No," he said with a slight laugh in his voice, it's more complicated than that my little beauty." He said winking at Weiss, making her go scarlet. With embarrassment or rage, Ruby didn't know, but she found something twinging in her stomach at this comment, what, she wasn't exactly sure.

"It in fact far too complicated to explain tonight, everything will be explained tomorrow. I've had a long day."

Ruby had noticed what he was doing at first, but he was stripping down his underwear, and laying down on his bed roll.

"Goodnight, fair maidens." He said, and he leaned back to go to sleep.

"Hey! Wait!" Weiss started, but it was evident Thor had already drifted off to sleep. "I am not sharing my dorm with this….this….barbarian!" Weiss huffed and even made her way to the door.

"Weiss, wait, it's too late to do anything now, at least wait till morning," Ruby begged her.

Weiss stopped and seemed to think about it for a moment before she sighed and headed back to her bed flopping down to go to sleep.

* * *

Blake hide her face behind her book as Thor stripped down to sleep, to hide he beat red face. That sent he carried with him, it was much stronger this close to him. This flush to her face wasn't normal, it wasn't that she was embarrassed to see him parade himself around like that, she'd seen a lot more in her time than that. It was the damn smell of him, she wasn't even embarrassed, but she felt her body temperature rising. This was some sort of biological reaction, one she wasn't sure was healthy for her.

She was more than a bit of a closet pervert, but even then she didn't usually react that way to boys showing off their bodies.

But her curiosity about him was stronger than ever, and if he was going to be their bunk mate, well, that offered her some good opportunities.

* * *

Yang herself thought it was worth having Thor in their room just to see Weiss's reaction to him. His mere presence was enough to get her blood boiling, which was worth it to her.

He was, at least her eyes, everything that was associated with the word "uncouth," yet he was better than her in combat. That must be infuriating to her, and it was hilarious to Yang.

But damn, he was a fine piece of man meat, and she didn't mind it if he stuck around if he was going to give her a little show every once and a while.

Ruby was the only thing that might worry her about his attitude, but she was clearly in love with his hammer…

It took her a bit a self-restraint to not laugh at the implications of that thought, especially because it was her baby sister.

But frankly, she needed to start noticing boys or girls in that way. Yang really wanted to protect her sister, but at the time she wanted to start to do the normal thing with her peers, and part of that was getting a boyfriend or girlfriend.

Maybe having this big guy around would open her up a bit, he was apparently as overboard about weapons as her, but far more social.

Besides the fact, she thought her sister might have a little crush on the boisterous blonde. Her obsession with his weapons, the fact that even when she hated him, she wouldn't shut up about him.

It seemed to have a few of the hallmarks of a preschool crush, and despite Ruby being beyond that regarding years, she was still in many ways still a little girl.

Not that she'd ever let that loud mouth date her sweet little sister, but she wanted to see her start and come out of her shell a bit.

* * *

In the following weeks.

Ozpin had explained the situation to her, but that didn't make Weiss any happier about the sleeping arrangements.

As she brooded in the cafeteria thinking on the issue that had been bothering her for some time.

Thor didn't technically have a team, but still passed the initiation test, so he was to be a sort of free-lance team member, to simulate the possibility of requesting aid or being given another person to work with the team or individual on a job.

Not she was opposed to the idea, but why him? He was boar, a brute and totally unrefined. That and their room was already crowded with four, but why did he need to bunk with them?

Port had mentioned he had first made eye contacts with one of her team members, which one he hadn't said, but this was used to give him his room assignment. He couldn't' be given a private room, that would show favoritism, but why them of all people? Hadn't JNPR also been there for his first contact, why couldn't he room with them? There were even two other boys there, well just barely, given Jaune Arc was barely a man, but still, why put him in the same room as an all-female team?

It was asking for trouble, she was sure of it, he'd try something sooner or later.

Just as she thought this, she watches as a student of similar personality, if not so loud, Cardin Winchester torment a Faunus upper classmen.

It was cruel, and the very thing she hoped to change in her families company. She wanted to look away, but just couldn't, she wasn't entertained at all, but it was human nature she supposed to want to watch.

She only hears her teammates comments on the issue, but her blood ran cold and hot at the same time as she saw Thor approach Cardin, laughing.

How could he agree with this mentality? Of course, he did, though, she should have known it, he was an arrogant cade. The fact he held these beliefs was not at all surprising.

But what happened next did surprise her.

* * *

Velvet was frozen in terror as the brutish first-year student pulled on her ears. She was, as always conflicted on how to react. She was a meek individual, but was still a year ahead of this boy and could trounce him in a fight. But she couldn't bring herself to do anything, just begging for him to stop.

Her heart sank as another first year, a very famous first year joined in slapping Cardin on the shoulder, laughing with him. The fact that this other boy was already a legend in the school made her despair even more that even someone like him would think this was okay.

She heard him talk and it made her shiver.

* * *

"Yes they are real aren't they?!" Thor bellowed to Cardin, as the other boy laughed in agreement.

He clapped his arm around his shoulder and pulled him close in a brotherly bond.

But as his laughter stopped, Cardin's laugh continued as he continued to pull on the girl's ears, the other boy failed to notice.

Thor placed his hand under Cardin ear, place thumb and forefinger over his earlobe.

"Tell me…. is this real?" Thor asked in a cool voice as Cardin looked at him confused.

Before Cardin knew what had happened Thor was dragging him around the room by his ear.

"It's real huh? Well, good to know, here let's see how far you will go to keep it."

With that he pulled on the boy's ear, leading him into a stumbling run, to the point he forced him to run full tilt into the wall. At which point he released him, as his teammate charged into protect him.

It was over in an instant , one quick punch to the throat of one sent him reeling for breath, a kick to the sternum made one double over in pain, letting him throw him across the cafeteria. The last one was merely thrown through a window to finish it, then he went back to their leader.

Cardin was regaining his composure, his shock at the sudden manhandling fading and he was getting ready to fight.

Thor didn't give him a chance, as he grabbed his throat and slammed him into a wall, pinning him there.

As he held him there, he brought his face closer to Cardin's and whispered in his ear.

"I ever catch wind of you doing anything like this again, I'm not going to stop, I'll beat you and your team till there is nothing left, you get me?"

Cardin didn't say anything, but Thor got the feeling he got the message, and promptly dropped him to the ground and walked away.

* * *

Weiss hadn't expected that at all. Thor had beaten Cardin's team for his actions when he had appeared to join in on their 'fun', but that seemed only a ploy to lull them into a false sense of security.

But, he clearly hated the anti-Faunus stance, given his action and words.

Had she misjudged him? She supposed she may have, which she really shouldn't of. Given how often people judge her without thinking, she may have given him a bit more of the benefit of the doubt.

But she didn't dwell on this too long, maybe he wasn't all bad, but he was still pretty bad. He was still loud, ate food like and animal, and had less sense of personal space than Nora. Just because he correctly believed Faunus shouldn't be miss treated didn't make him anymore likable in her eyes.

* * *

Thor sat in the detention with Professor Port, helping him prepare for the next class, and by prepare he meant sort papers, listening to his stories.

Now Thor liked to hear the man tell his tales, but he was still irritated at the fact he was given detention for standing up to that Cardin ass. He'd known it was likely when he did it, but if the school took care of him themselves this wouldn't have needed to happen anyway.

But he supposed what had him so agitated and lashing out at Cardin the way. It was funny how people thought that just because you were loud, you couldn't hear them whispering.

People where comparing him to that ass, and what was worse, he could sort of get it. They were both very large bruisers in build, used bludgeoning weapons, and loved to hear themselves talk and bragged constantly.

But any connection between him and that boy was thoroughly unwelcomed. He didn't care for his cruel nature or his bigoted views.

He'd be lying if he didn't admit that at least part of that action was to separate himself from that ass.

Sighing, he turned back to the paper than needed to be organized. This was torture, he was no dummy, but this sort of task help no interest for him, and it would probably take him two or three times longer to it than most other students.

* * *

Ruby looked around to see if anyone was near or in ear shot as she snuck around the locker room.

Creeping like a thief, she found the locker she was looking for.

"Heheheheh, now let's see what this thing is really made of." She snickered to herself and opened Thor's locker. He'd left his Scroll in their room while he was in detention, and she'd seized the opportunity.

And she wasn't going to do anything to hurt his equipment, she just wanted a better understanding of how it worked, which Thor had consistently refused to tell her.

As his locker opened, she had to keep herself from drooling over his gear. She'd never, in all her life seen someone use anything like it. All the things he could do with it, yet it had no apparent moving parts, it was almost like magic.

Of course, as cool as that would be, Thor had told her a little, and she knew that all the moving pieces and electronics were just hidden inside.

Now, reaching for the hammer, she gripped it and pulled. It don't budge.

"Darn it!" she muttered grabbing it with both hand to try and pull, she knew it was going to be heavy, but she hadn't expected it to be like this!

Yanking and pulling on it for five minutes, it still didn't budge. Until finally, she pulled so hard she lost her grip and landed on her butt with a 'thump'.

"Thor….huh…huh. huh, must be super strong to even lift that thing, let alone fight with it like he does." She panted silently to herself.

Well, if she could get the hammer out, then she'd just have to try his belt or vest, not the parts she really wanted to examine, but…..

She stopped cold in her tracks as she heard the door to the locker room open.

"Aw crap!" she said as she hurriedly closed Thor's locker, her plan foiled for today.

After doing so she took off, not wanting to be caught looking as guilty as she felt, she'd crack under the slightest interrogation.

* * *

Blake wasn't certain about many things when it came to Thor. He made her blood hot just by being around, he was louder than Nora and Yang put together, his snoring could wake the dead, he irritated Weiss to no end, and he had stood up for the Faunus.

That last one had endeared him to her, and he didn't even know it. Seeing Faunus mistreatment was common for her, what was rare is when a human stepped in to help, and Thor had done in brilliantly violent fashion.

She was glad that Cardin wasn't seriously hurt, as vile he may be, she didn't want to see anymore death.

But she was glad he'd experienced a little bit of fear and humiliation.

* * *

Damn it, that was ballsy, was all Yang could think. She knew Thor could trounce Cardin in a fight, but to do that in front of his team and the school body, well he could have gotten in a lot of trouble of an unprovoked attack on another student.

Yang didn't know Beacon rules inside and out, but luckily for her Weiss did, and in her post Cardin humiliation rant about their roommate, she dropped the fact that he could be expelled for it.

He was lucky he only got detention for it.

And she was glad he'd stick around like would get much more boring outside of class without him around.

He caused Weiss a never ending head ach, which was hilarious, the girl was way to uptight. He didn't have to do anything but wink at her to send her in stuttering rage, her face glowing hot red.

Yang was fairly certain the heiress was having a hard reconciling her distaste for his behavior and her obvious physical attraction to him. She flat out denied it, but come on, the guy was like a golden god, practically every girl in their years was pinning over him, and few of the older ones as well.

Even Blake got flustered when he was around, which was odd, but something about that told her Blake wasn't interested in him in that way, that her fluster was coming from something else he was doing.

Ruby, had, however, balked Yang earlier assumptions completely. She really was just in love with his weapon. What she mistook from the signs of a crush were just what they appeared to be, her being upset with him.

Granted those feeling had long sense dissipated, and Thor, who had never actually been upset with Ruby, treated her like a little sister.

Now that sometimes got on Yang's nerve. She knew Ruby wasn't a possession, but she still felt like he was invading her territory. But she was willing to let this slide for now because even if she had essentially raised Ruby by herself, it was nice to see her bonding with someone else.

Still had to work on getting her a date though.

* * *

It was past midnight before Thor got out of detention, and he felt mentally wiped. He was hungry but the Cafeteria was long sense closed.

He'd just head back to his room and go to sleep, he'd have to eat in the morning.

Opening the door as quietly as he could, he looked around the room. The bunk beds his teammate had made were still an odd sight to see. There was no way they were stable and he was waiting for one of them to be crushed one night.

His own bed, if you could call it that, was in the corner. It was, in fact, closer to a cot than real bed, but a full seized bed would make the room to cramp. He didn't really mind, he could sleep just about anywhere.

As he undressed, he was a little sorry the girls weren't awake to see the "nightly show" as Yang called it. More specifically, he was sorry Weiss wasn't awake, she freaked out every time he did it, and constantly threated to turn him in for "inappropriate behavior", it was hilarious. She was so uptight, she needed to loosen up, and really it wasn't healthy to walk around with all that stress all the time.

She needed to get laid or something, not that he was interested in her that way. To small, not enough muscle. But that Arc boy was really into her, and he wasn't really all that bad. A total catastrophe as a warrior, but Thor had a gift for seeing what people really were, and that boy was a good soul, he wasn't into her for looks, power or money. Why though he'd never know, she was a little snot a lot of time. She was good at heart, and ultimately well meaning, but her upbringing had left its mark on her.

That Arc boy could see past it, well, that was more reason than most to give the boy a chance.

* * *

That night everyone in that room dreamed.

Ruby dreamt of her Crescent Rose, upgraded to the scale of Thor's hammer, yet it was useless against the largest snake Grimm she had ever seen, all attack bouncing off it iron like scales as if she were throwing rock at a tank.

Weiss, had a nightmare, of a giant of ice, crushing a garden of flowers, with cold so intense the petals shattered like crystal wine glasses in the wind. She held her hand in front of her face, trying to block the wind, which left like razors of in exposed skin. She tried to bend herself lower, only for the force of the wind to pick up and throw her into the air, carrying her to parts unknown.

Thor dreamt of a Dragon, the looked like the sun made flesh, glowing and radiating power, yet had lost a wing as a great darkness descended on it, while he lay crippled in pain, unable to move. His skin felt as if he'd been cut to ribbons with blades of fire, and he couldn't see out of his right eye.

Blake, of the sky, ripping open in a brilliant light, then a roar shook the earth as something came thorough. She looked to see what it was, but she couldn't bear the idea of face what it was, and turned and ran for her life.

Yang dreamt of giant of fire, wielded a great sword that only flickered as she attacked it. All her attacks passed through it like it was actual fire, despite the fact it look solid. As she attacked one final time, the giant raised it flaming sword and brought in down on her arm, which erupted in pain.

They all woke up the following morning, and whole they didn't way it to each other in the moment, they were all feeling the same thing.

Fear, they all remembered their dream with perfect recall.

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **Remember, Review and tell me what you think and what I need to improve.**


	2. Dreams and Teams

Okay, this is chapter 2. I've been having a hard time deciding what genre this fall's in as I feel there is more than two present.

Anyways reviews are appreciated, I don't have a beta or editor, and any help is appreciated, If you hate it, tell me, if you love it, Tell me. If it doesn't interest you at all please tell me, I want to improve. I'm certain I'm doing many thing wrong and I need notes, or if not that at least encouragment to keep going.

I was orginally going to cut all the chapter into shorter protions, but have since deiced to only to that with eh first chapter, as I feel the first chapters shoudl be shorter to introduce people to the story.

Well here's Chapter 2.

* * *

Chapter 1

Thor awoke the next morning, suddenly but not in any exaggerated way so his roommates would know something was wrong.

The pain was this there; it hadn't faded with the dream. A burning agony all over his body that only started to fade a minute or two after waking up. It was only through his tenacity he didn't make a noise.

That was no ordinary dream, it was prophetic, and he'd had them before. The fact the pain lingered on into the waking world was proof. It was a sign of that the dream was linked to the real world.

It was bad, whatever was coming was bad. But these dream were very rarely ever literal in content, you needed a mystic or soothsayer to accurately interpret them, and he didn't think they would be easy to find.

He was brought out of his thoughts by sudden cries of pain coming from Yang bed.

The girl was throwing things apparently in a total panic, shouting nonsense. Her eye's wide and full of fear, she was attacking anything in sight, which included her teammates, who had awoken to the disturbance.

In their sleep clouded stupor none was ready for her, this was evident as Blake was tossed across the room.

She only shouted "Him, he's here!", but that wasn't what caught Thor attention, her right arm was limp at her side, and she had reached up and grabbed her bicep as if it was hurting her.

Thor had seen enough and tackled her to the ground.

She fought, and she was strong. But she was also panicked and not using one of her arms. Thor wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a bear hug with her face to his, and started to whisper in her ear.

"Come back to us, the dream is over, it fades into mist, and the waking world takes grip." It was a saying his father had taught him, it carried minor magic in it, to help clear the fog sometimes caused by these dreams.

As he said it, Yang struggle weakened, and her breathing becomes more even, and slower.

After a few moments, he felt it was safe enough to let her go, and slacken his grip and let her go. Looking her in the eyes. To his relief, they lost their panicked and frenzied appearance.

"Yang! What the hell was that?" Blake shouted as Thor took a step back to give her some breathing room.

With the panic and fear leaving her face, all that was left was confusion, like she couldn't reconcile her actions with logical thought. Which was normal for a person who had experienced what he was certain she had, especially if they had no experience with them.

Looking around the room, he examined the other members of team RWBY. Ruby herself was near tears, clearly terrified of what had happened, and, Thor thought to himself, maybe something more, her face seems to telegraph many fears at once.

Weiss, for her part, did the best of keeping her composure, but it was evident she was rattled.

Blake was scared, he could tell, but did he see a twinge of anger in there as well? Maybe, but he turned his gaze back to Yang.

She looked visibly upset, near tear herself after what she did. She flopped down on the floor, putting her face in her hand. "I'm sorry, I don't know what….I just…."

No one seemed to know what to say, but Thor stepped forward "Was it your dream?"

The room wouldn't have been called loud before, at least not after Yang had calmed down, but it was silent as a grave now as Yang looked at him, shocked.

Thor didn't need more of a response; he got dressed as quickly as he could.

"Thor, what are you talking about?" Blake asked after a moment's silence.

He didn't answer, but pulled on his boots and ran out the door.

"Thor! What are you talking about!" she shouted after him as he ran down the hall.

He ignored her as he ran to his locker.

* * *

"Blake wait!" Weiss cried as she grabbed Blake to keep her from following Thor. "We need to stay here for now." She said as she gestured to Yang.

"Yang." Weiss began, "What did he mean by your dream?" she asked as calmly as she could, but there was still the note of a quiver in her voice.

"It's …. Nothing," Yang said in an utterly unconvincing tone.

But the glares of her team, quickly broke down he resolve, and she began explaining what she thought Thor was talking about.

Her dream, as she described it was an unpleasant experience. But it was just a dream, or at least that what Weiss thought. But Yang had put a clear emphasis on how real it had seemed, that even the pain had carried over to when she woke up.

Weiss didn't want to think there was a link between Yang dream and here's. Her's too had been incredibly vivid, but that had to be coincident. But as she looked to her other team mates, their faces seemed unusually stoic, even Blake, who was normally the coolest of them all.

Ruby spoke first. "Ummm, I have something to tell you guys."

* * *

Thor flew over the forest he'd first appeared in a couple year earlier. His hammer carrying him quickly, if not accurately over the space.

He soon found what he was looking for, the crater he'd been found in by Ozpin two years ago.

Landing with a crack of lighting, he cleared all the Grimm out of the immediate area. At the center was what he was after. Dropping his hammer, he gripped it with all his might and pulled…..to no avail.

He pulled on it for a few more minutes before giving up. Not yet, but he needed it soon. His dream was not something to be taken lightly, and he presumed Yang's wasn't either. He needed to be whole again, or else tragedy would soon follow.

* * *

Team RWBY was silent for a quite some time. After Ruby had told them her dream, the other had come forward to describe there. They didn't wake with the pain sensation Yang had, but other feeling had carried over into the waking world.

Weiss felt cold despite the temperature of the room, Blake felt like her eye's had been staring into the sun and Ruby felt the exhaustion of the battle she had dreamed she fought.

"This is crazy," Weiss said after everyone's silence. "It was just some nightmares, nothing more."

"Then how did Thor know?" Yang said, a little bitterly, her mood not entirely repaired "And what are the odds we all had this type of vivid dream on the same night at the same time!"

"Hardly evidence of anything, a coincident at best," Weiss said dismissively. "Bad dreams happen, and they are often vivid, it's nothing to worry about." She said with a confidence she didn't really feel. For all she said, she was pretty shaken by her nightmare.

There was a silence after this, because as much as they didn't want to agree with Weiss, the fact was their dreams, while not similar in content, had left them all feeling similar ways, lingering effects that carried on past the dream.

* * *

Ruby would have liked to agree with Weiss, to dismiss this all as some bad dream. But some things didn't ring true. One being the obvious vividness of all the dreams, another was the lingering sensations that continued even after they had woken up. Then there was Thor knowing what had upset Yang, that was eerie, but there was something else bothering her.

"Yang…What did he say to you to calm you down." She asked in a tentative voice.

Her sister looked at her for a moment, before answering her. "I honestly don't remember, it was something about dreams fading? I don't really remember it, but after that, I did start to calm down, it was like…I don't know, someone poured water on fire, everything I was feeling just felt less intense."

That was all Ruby needed to know, at least for now. Thor knew something about what he happened, Blake had suspected that as well. But regardless, they needed to find him and find out what was going on.

* * *

As Thor packed away his gear, he couldn't help but let his mind wander. What did he need to do? This wasn't meant to be easy, but he just couldn't figure it out.

But his time was limited, and the worst part he didn't even have exact number, or really a vague idea. If he had a proper interpreter, he could get it down to within a few days, but as it stood, all he had was the idea it was in the near future.

He didn't even know what the threat would be. His dream may have had some familiar ideas, but that didn't mean much, these types of dreams could occur in figurative as well as literal.

He wasn't one to usually sweat over something like this, but he felt vulnerable without his full power. He was strong now, but a far cry from what he really was. He had been hurt over the years, never to any great degree, but in his real state, the causes of the injury would have done nothing to him.

If he faced a powerful enough force, he might not be able to win.

He started to trudge back to his room, still deep in thought he passed other students, early risers no doubt, wanting to get the most out of their weekend.

Lost in his own thoughts, he bumped into a much smaller student, sending them sprawling to the floor. Snapping out of his thoughts, he looked down to notice Velvet on the floor.

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry." He said quickly as he bends down to help her up.

"It's okay, actually I wanted to talk to you." She said, not quite looking him in the eye, her shy nature showing.

"Yeah? About what?" he said a smile he really didn't feel graced his lips. Most of the time he was genuinely happy and boisterous, but moments like this made him have to put up a front, to keep him from attracting attention, any sudden change in personality would draw attention he didn't care to have.

"I just wanted to say thank you, for standing up for me…I'm not used to having someone other than my teammates stand up for me."

She was blushing, and Thor was a bit curious at this, talking someone shouldn't cause such a reaction, at least in most people, but he supposed her shy nature may make it harder for her to approach a relative stranger.

"But, I was wondering if, maybe, if you weren't too busy that is, would you like to maybe….." she sputtered as her face was now beet red.

Thor knew what this was, but decided to let her try and get it out herself.

"Would you like to go out? Like, Sunday or something?"

She looked like it had practically killed her to ask this. He didn't have, much of interest in her, as cute as she was, but she just wasn't his type really, to shy, to demur. But she had asked him despite her fears, and bravery deserved a reward.

"Actually, my lovely lady, I'm free this after noon, if you'd like to go out on the town. Meet me out front at the statue." He said smiling as he walked past, her face a red as Ruby's cloak.

Turning back he said, "I look forward to it."

As he turned away, his smile dropped and a brooding expression appeared. He wanted to delve deeper into his vision, but with no means to, all he could reasonably hope for was to be a prepared as he could for whenever what was going to happen happened.

This date might help clear his head, he couldn't do anything now anyway, and having a day off in the city with a cute girl might be just what he needed to get his head straight.

As he went into his room, he felt a like the air surrounding him had dropped ten degrees. Looking up, he saw Team RWBY glaring daggers at him.

"What?"

* * *

Thor should have known, he'd been far from inconspicuous after the whole ordeal with Yang. It would have taken someone extraordinarily dim not pick up on something.

He sat there as the four girls interrogated him.

"So…" Weiss said, pacing back in forth in front of him, she having taken the role of lead interrogator. Not the worse choice for the job in his opinion, but Blake probably would have been better.

"Is it some sort of drug? Having you been slipping us some kind of chemical concoction. Perhaps a tranquilizer with vivid nightmares as a side effect? Hmmm?" she said looking him dead in the eye with what she apparently imagined was a cold-steely gaze, and maybe to most other students it would work, but he was made of tougher stuff and frankly found more cute than anything else.

"Why in the world would I do that?"

"So you could do…do….stuff…" she said as her voiced weekend and trailed off.

Clearly, she had meant for that too much more specific, and much sterner ringing accusation. But her nerve had failed her and came off very weak. Probably what she was thinking, she realized would sound much crazier out loud than in her head.

"If you want to say you think I did something say it, I don't appreciate minced words, and I don't take kindly to baseless accusation."

Weiss's face getting red, not from embarrassment, but from him getting her flustered. "You know what I mean …..molest…" she whispered the last part again so only Thor could hear it.

"Ahh, there it is, I knew it!" he said raising his hands in exasperation. "Look, I didn't molest any of you alright?", he said, but unlock Weiss he didn't whisper.

Weiss' face was beet red, Yang had covered Ruby's ear, much to the younger girl protest. The only one who didn't visibly react was Blake.

"Quiet! Do you want everyone to hear?" Weiss hissed at him

"I don't care because if I did what you think I did, it's gonna come out eventually right?" Thor near roared at her, making Weiss step back in shock.

Thor was visibly angry at the accusation, and Weiss had never actually seen him in a rage like this, and it was scary. Wait? She had seen him like this before, just yesterday. The Cardin incident. Her blood ran cold, was he going to attack her? Without her weapon, there was little doubt between the two of them who'd come off the better in a fight. In fact, she suspected there wasn't another first-year student who could handle him bare handed, with the possible exception of Yang.

But he didn't do anything, he just sat there leering at her.

* * *

Blake stepped forward as Weiss retreated "Weiss, that's a severe accusation, one that could ruin someone's reputation, even if it proved false, you can't just make that type accusation without proof."

She turned to Thor, looking at his rage filled face. He suddenly looked much older than his age, and it was scary. But she was going to give him the chance to explain what he knew, if anything, and didn't plan on accusing him of anything, yet anyway. This maybe the answer she was looking for in him.

"Thor…" she began softly, "Can you tell us anything about the dreams?"

* * *

Thor looked Blake in her Amber eyes and let out a sigh, calming himself down a bit. He needed to come up with a story quick. This wasn't really his area of expertise, his brother would have done so as easily as breathing, but you didn't spend that much time around Loki without picking up some trick.

One thing his brother had told him once, came to his mind, "The best deception is almost entirely true."

"It's…" he began. "Something from my father."

That was a mistake at once, and he knew. He'd told them before that he was from the Vale orphanage, which was true, but he'd never told them about before that. Now he had to answer those questions, someday, but hopefully not today. But the confusion was evident in their eyes, he was going to have to push through hope they bought his line.

"His…semblance…he could see a vision of the future." Which was true of his father, at least in part.

"But, he had no control over it, and being exposed to it for so long, seeing possible futures, drove him to be a distant man. But what he didn't know was…." He stumbled there, but he thought it just made it look like he was having a hard time reliving the memory. "His power bleeds over into the dream of those who were near him, and they began to experience visions in their dreams from time to time…myself included."

This was not a very convincing story to him, but it was the best he could do.

"Is that why you left home?" Ruby said, speaking up suddenly.

He wasn't prepared to answer that question, but it seemed she had given him an idea. "No….he sent me away because of it, for my own good." Again, sort of true, he didn't really know what his task here was, but this was a possible explanation for his apparent lack of a family.

Yang, Blake and Ruby's face had changed drastically from when he first came in the room, from anger to sympathy. He hated sympathy, but it was better than picking a fight with them.

But Weiss looked angry again.

"Maybe that is true, but why would we have the dreams now, even when you didn't?" Her tone accusing again.

"Who said I didn't?" he replied coolly.

She dummied up at that for a moment but turned on the attack again.

"But that was your father's semblance, why would it affect us?"

At this, he could be candid. "I don't know, I haven't had once since I left home."

"Okay." Blake spoke up "Let's say all this is real, what do they mean?"

"I couldn't say, my father could accurately interpret the visions, but I never learned how to, all I can say is they aren't necessarily literal."

Yang stepped forward and spoke up "What did you dream of?"

Thor looked her in the eye, and responded: "Tell me yours first."

* * *

Yang recounted her dream to Thor, followed by Ruby, Blake and finally Weiss, who was still too angry and embarrassed at the whole situation to really want to cooperate.

There were theme's he recognized, the fire giant, the frost giant, the serpent. But he wasn't sure if that was his influence on them or if they were literal.

He told them his, of the dragon, and the pain, but didn't go into great detail.

"All I can say is, something bad is likely to happen sometime in the near future. "He said, "I can't really tell what or when, but the overall theme of dread, seems to be clear."

The reactions of the team ranged from stoic but stiff in Blake, an apparent agitation in Yang, fear in Ruby, and confusion in Weiss.

"What are we gonna do Thor." Ruby squeaked out.

That hurt him, in the short time he'd now the girl, she was probably the only person here he was close with, like a little sister in a way. The thought that he'd brought the nightmare to her told her it was real, in a way, and now he had to tell her it couldn't be stopped or planned for.

No, he didn't want to cause her worry, he didn't have to outright lie to her, but he felt an urge to ease her fear.

He smiled, an award winning smile "We don't have to worry about a thing!" He said standing up to his full height, causing Weiss and Ruby too step back. "Don't you have the Mighty Thor on your side? What could possibly stop me?" as to put emphasis on the point he flexed his arms in a very boisterous pose.

Yang smiled and rolled her eyes, Weiss huffed and turned away, and Blake just shook her head. But he hadn't done this for them, and it had the right effect.

Ruby went wide eyed, squealed and jumped forward to hug him. Which he returned.

"You're so cool Thor! You can beat any baddie!"

"Of course! There is nothing to fear while I'm around."

Letting her go, he looked her in the eye. "So as for what we are going to do, we need to seize the day, I, have a date this afternoon with a very cute Faunus."

Ruby looked confused and looked at Blake, who turned red.

"It's not me!" she shouted.

"It's Velvet." He said as he walked away to get ready. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get ready."

* * *

Later that Night

Yang stayed up, waiting for Thor to return. She needed to have a private conversation with him about a couple things.

For one, she and he were the only ones to have any sort of pain waking up, and she wanted more clarifications on that. Then she wanted to thank him for all the bluster that had eased Ruby's fear. She was certain that's what it was, all bluster an act to relieve her. His sudden shift in tone was almost enough on its own sell her on that idea.

Ruby, bless her heart, was still in love with the stories of heroes and legends, and Thor seemed to of walked whole and breathing out of one. His prowess, which was unmatched by anyone else in their grade except maybe Pryyha, made him seem a living legend. But he also carried himself with such an air of confidence and swagger, that it was hard not to see him as a hero of old. Then there was the fact he was really just a good guy.

His public thrashing of Cardin was the visible way to see it, but in the time they had shared a room with him, aspects of his kind heart showed through all the bravado and bluster. He was nice to Ruby, humoring her constant request to have a look at his gear. He always denied her but did it a way that made Ruby much more interested in his equipment, almost teasing her.

Weiss's opinion of Thor, at least to Yang, was entirely unwarranted. She was probably the smartest person on the team in the traditional sense, possibly even in their whole class. But she wasn't very good at judging people. She's been ranting to the team for weeks that having a boy in their dorm would lead to trouble, despite the fact that they were far from the only coed dorm room. That had come to the forefront today, with an accusation she had no proof of. Yang knew what a false rumor could do to a person's reputation, she had a few follow her at Signal. Granted she had eventually slipped them, but what Weiss accused Thor was far worse.

Then there was her point blank refusal to give Jaune a chance. The kid was a good guy, sweet in a dorky way, he kind of reminded her of Ruby in a way. Now if Weiss didn't want to date him, well that was her choice, but her reasons for not doing so were based on what she thought Jaune was, rather than what he really was. That wasn't fair of her, even with no dating involved, it wasn't fair to the kid.

But she didn't hate Weiss for this trait. She had been hard wired to think the way she did. And by God she was trying her hardest to change, she saw it, her fighting with who she was raised to be, and who she wanted to be. But she needed to trust people.

Coming out of her thoughts, she looked at the clock, it was past midnight, and Thor still wasn't back. She didn't know Velvet all that well, she was the year ahead of her, and seemed like a sweet girl, and she couldn't imagine her wanting to be out this late, too meek to want to party the night away like Yang would of like to do.

She wondered what they were doing.

* * *

"I had a really nice time tonight Thor." Velvet whispered, and she held onto his arm lightly.

"Me too, a nice change of pace for me, I'm not normally one for a quiet night." He said smiling at her.

He had had an excellent time, it wasn't what he usually enjoyed, but the pleasant company helped. They had gone out to eat at a quiet little café, a museum, and finally a walk down by the ocean.

"So…would you like to do it again sometime?" she asked, her voice not as meek as before.

Thor stopped and looked her in the eyes. His smile a little sad. "Velvet, you are a wonderful young woman, and this was a lovely evening. But it wouldn't work out long term, we're too different, my idea of a fun night out is going the rowdiest bar I can find and getting into fights, watching a fight or partying. "

He hated this part, but he didn't want to lead her on. It still didn't help when her face fell. "You'll find someone better than me, someone, who like all the thing you do, you can really bond with them."

"Thank you, but don't have to lie to me, no one would go out with me." She said looking at the ground.

Oh, he hated himself right now. Not just for her mood, but for silently thinking this was why it wouldn't work. She was too meek, and down on herself, he liked women with confidence and a bit of swagger, that Coco girl on her team was a good example of that, but that wasn't going to happen either.

"Listen." He began, putting his hand on her shoulder. "You are talented and beautiful, and a genuinely sweet girl. You could have your choice of these boys."

"Except for you." She mumbled.

"Well, I'm not a boy, I am a man!" he tried at a joke, and he thought he saw a slight smile on her face.

"Tell you what?" he started, thinking on his feet "You know the dance next semester?"

"Yeah?"

"If you can't find someone to go with you by then, or I can't convince someone to go with you. I'll take you myself, and give you that second date."

She smiled at that, clearly certain he'd have to follow through on his end of the deal. He knew he wouldn't, she was already the idol of several of his male classmates and some of the girls. Getting her a date wouldn't be hard.

"You know Thor, you're so much more mature than most of the guys here, in some ways at least." She said, starting to smile as he headed back to Beacon.

"Thank, now, if you don't mind, I'll walk you back to your room, as fitting of a gentleman such as myself."

She giggled at this, and he smiled at her comment as well. She was closer than she knew, while his body may be young, her soul and mind were ancient by humans and Faunus standards.

* * *

Just as Yang was getting ready to go to bed and talk to Thor the next day when the door creaked open. Thor crept in as quietly as he could, which was actually really quiet, given his size.

Jumping out of her bed, she made her way to him as quietly as she could.

"Thor?" she whispered.

"Hmmm, Yang, thought you'd be asleep by now." He said a voice that was so quiet compared to his standard boom, it was off putting.

"Yeah, couldn't sleep, needed to talk to you." She gestured to the door "Outside."

Thor looked a bit perplexed but nodded in agreement.

They both quietly made their way into the hall so they could talk in normal voices.

As they exited the room, and Yang closed the door, she turned to Thor.

"So how'd the date go?" she asked deciding to start with small talk.

"Fine, she's a sweet girl."

"You going to see her again?"

"No, I don't think so, like I said, sweet girl, but we're too different for it to work. Why are you asking? Jealous?" he said smirking and raising an eyebrow.

Yang just signed, early on that might have made her blush a bit, but he always flirted with every girl, or well near every girl. She was used to it by now and knew he was just poking fun at her.

"No, but your love life isn't what I wanted to talk you about anyway." She sighed and continued, deciding to start with the softer topic.

"Thanks, for that little show you put on for Ruby, she's still a kid many ways, you're hero act helped her a lot after that scare."

Thor smiled and responded "What act? I am a great hero!"

Yang raised a single eyebrow and said "Thor." In a measured tone.

Thor sighed "Sorry, have some trouble turning it off sometimes. But, you're welcome at any rate, your sister is a sweet girl, I didn't want to be the cause any undue stress of fear on her part."

But this brought up another question for her ask him, one she hadn't even really considered until this point "What's with all the bravado? I mean, I get confidence, but all the shouting and bragging? Making sure everyone knows how strong you are? You come off as a pompous ass to anyone who doesn't know you."

"Oh, and you know me?" Thor said, this time his eyebrow being raised.

"Well enough to know you aren't an uncaring bastard like Cardin. You actually look after people, even if the wider student body doesn't always see. You have compassion for people weaker than you and are a surprisingly smart man. Why act that way?"

* * *

Yang was much more observant than Thor would have guessed, he'd of thought Blake would pick up on it first.

But the truth was, it wasn't an act, not really. He'd grown up in competition, among warrior and poet who retold their tales. Bragging and boasting were part of life for years beyond compare. He'd tempered it over the years, but it was still there. And here it all came back, why, he wasn't exactly sure, he wasn't certain why these sort things happened. But if he were to guess, it was fear, fear of never seeing home again, so he brought out some of his heritage.

Yang thought it was an act, but it wasn't, but she had seen what that attitude typically covered up, rather unintentionally really, but most people didn't see past it, at least at first.

People would usually see an arrogant man, and assumed he wasn't up to any good. But he didn't act maliciously, and people, at least those close to him, would see through.

But how to answer.

"I'm not sure, I think I do it protect myself if that makes sense."

* * *

It did make sense, in a way. At least to Yang, for all his bravado, she thought he might fear real close relationship, which would also mean those he had, he cherished, like the one with Ruby.

"Well, I think I can get it, but I'm getting side tracked here. The dream."

Thor's eyes widened, very slightly, but she caught it.

"Why did it hurt? Why did yours hurt?"

Thor's face told her he didn't want to tell her. But she wasn't going to have that.

"I'm not going to let this go. My arm didn't just hurt, I couldn't use it at all, what does that mean?"

Thor sighed and looked her in the eye. "All visions carry some sort of physical sensation that brings's over when you wake up and lingers for a short time. The other experienced more tame versions of this than you or I, but these sensations are the easiest thing to read in these dreams, and typically the one thing you can be certain of."

"So, something is going to hurt you and me, pretty badly, at some point in the near future."

"I would say that is likely, yes." He said with a face showing an emotion she hadn't ever seen there before. It was a dark cloud of sadness like he wished he were wrong. Then she thought he probably wish he was.

Yang wasn't sure what she believed in the whole vision thing, but she trusted Thor to be honest and give them what he at least believed to be the truth.

"So, what's the plan?"

Thor looked at her with an expression she couldn't precisely place. "Same as I said before, none."

"But!" she felt her temper spike, how could he not have a plan if he knew, or at least suspected something was coming?

"I can't help in preparation." He cut her off "like I said, I don't know near enough to correctly interpret the dream. I can tell you some basics of the visions, but as for specific…I'm as lost as you."

"That can't be all, you have to know something!" her voice was getting louder, and she needed to reign it in.

"Yang, I can't help. I just know the general tone isn't right. I can't tell you if it will come tomorrow, three days, three week or three months. What's more, I couldn't even say what the threat was or where it came from, it could do more harm than good."

Yang gritted her teeth. "Well then what are we supposed to do?!"

"Seize the day for what it's worth. But if you want to prepare for whatever is coming, all I can say is get stronger, and you may be able to withstand the coming storm."

* * *

Yang looked ready to attack him in frustration, and he didn't need that right now.

"I know you want answers, but I can't give them, and you getting mad won't change that."

That seemed to temper her anger, but by no means appeared to cause it to dissipate.

"Well." She started "What about your dad? He'd know, right? Let's go find him!"

Thor's eye went wide at that. Finding his father would be a fool errand. He couldn't, or at least shouldn't tell her why. But he'd have to tell her something.

"My father is gone, I don't know if he is even alive anymore, and even if he was and I even knew where to find him, we'd never find him. He doesn't want me home, and he'd know where we'd look for him even before we thought of it."

True enough. His father didn't want him back right now, and that was something he needed to fix on his own.

Looking Yang in the face, he was startled to see her anger seemed to have completely disappeared. Why what he said had affected her enough to kill her anger, he didn't know but was grateful to see it was gone.

"Look, it's late, we'll talk more in the morning." He said, pulling the door open.

As he did, three figures tumbled out onto the floor, startling Yang and Thor.

* * *

"UGH! Blake, get your elbow out of my ribs." Ruby cried, trying to push her teammates of her.

"You dolt, if you hadn't been leaning on the door we wouldn't have fallen!" Weiss yelled.

"Just get up!" Blake shouted.

"Quiet! You're going to wake up the whole dorm!" Yang hissed at her teammates, but smiling and laughing at the same time.

Thor for his part, looked like he was holding back an incredibly violent fit of laughter.

As the two blonds held the three girls to their feet, Yang started asking the questions.

"How much did you hear?"

"Well, we came in about half way through, and you guys were talking about visions, and stuff, it wasn't really easy to hear, you guys were whispering," Ruby said, looking more than a bit ashamed.

"Yes, well people tend to do that when they want to have a private conversation," Yang said smirking at her little sister.

"But you guys shouldn't be keeping secret from us! Or at least you shouldn't Yang!"

Ruby said, her voice getting louder like her sisters.

Weiss spoke up this time "If what you say is true, then all we can do is get stronger, which is why we came here anyway. But if these dreams are visions of the future, well we'll have to double our effort." She looked Thor dead in the face as she spoke like she was talking to him. "Which means, getting a good night's rest to start our training tomorrow."

With that, she started shoving her team mates back into their room. Ruby protested, about having to train on the weekend. Blake went much more passively, and Yang, while not taking kindly to being told what to do, seemed too tired to actually fight it.

Thor made his way to the door, but Weiss stopped him. "I'd like to talk to you for a moment."

* * *

Thor gave the girl a quizzical look, but let her talk.

"I'm….sorry, for accusing, and for…giving you hard time." She said, looking both sincere and a little embarrassed. "I didn't have any reason to think what I did, other than…well, I guess I'll say my jumping to conclusions."

Thor nodded but waited to see if she had more to say, but the look on her face told him that this was hard enough as it is for her.

"It's…okay…I suppose I have been to…free with myself around you. I accept your apology, and I'll ease up on you."

Her face seemed to lighten up considerably at this, and with that, he extended a hand to her saying "Let's start over."

She smiled and took his much larger hand, shaking it.

"Now, let's get some sleep." Was all he had said before they both headed in.

* * *

Ruby watched as Thor and Weiss entered their room. 'What were they talking about,' was all she could think of.

She watched Thor change for bed, but to her mild surprise, he didn't strip down to his underwear, he kept a t-shirt on as he climbed into his cot, and fell fast asleep.

Sneaking out of bed, she crawled up to Weiss bed and whispered in her ear. "Hey, Weiss."

The other girl jumped out of her doze but didn't make a sound. "Ruby! What is it, we need our sleep!" she hissed.

"I just wanted to know what you talked to Thor about." She said in a pouty tone.

"I just apologized to him, that's all!"

"Oh…did he accept it?"

Weiss signed "Yes Ruby, and he agreed to lay off me a little with all the flirting. I'd take it that's why he's wearing a short now."

"Oh…I just thought."

"What?" Weiss said defensively.

"I don't know, just, he and Yang had a pretty significant conversation, yours seem a lot shorter."

"That's because it was, now go to sleep." She hissed at her and turned on her side, ending the conversation.

Ruby climbed back into bed. Thinking about what she had heard tonight.

And sort of missing Thor's flirting with Weiss.

* * *

Blake lay in her bed thinking. She's listened to the entire conversation between Yang and Thor, her sensitive hearing picking up on it. Thor's coming into their room, and Yang hoping out of bed had woken her up, and she couldn't help but hear them.

But in her curiosity, she'd climbed out of bed to listen more clearly. Their volume shifting dramatically, and through the door it muffled it. She probably could have stayed in bed and heard it all, but she didn't want to miss anything.

But she was too eager not to miss anything, and while climbing out of bed, hadn't noticed her own book she left on the floor. He slipped, and fell into Weiss, bed, waking both her and Ruby up.

She'd kept them both quiet enough, so Yang and Thor didn't hear, but they wanted to listen in as well.

But the first part of the conversation wasn't as important as the latter half, at least in her eyes.

She wondered if what was coming was a White Fang attack. She knew one was in the works, but it wasn't supposed to happen for a few years yet.

Like Thor said, they needed to improve. But, she could help but feel a bit guilty over eavesdropping on her friend, and…sort of a friend. She knew she shouldn't have done it, but she was a naturally curious person.

Deciding to leave these thoughts for the morning, she drifted off to sleep.

* * *

Yang didn't consider herself a morning person, not really. But Weiss's sudden waking of them, especially after how little sleep she got the night before.

Looking around, she noticed Thor was already gone. He, unlike her, was an early riser, in most regards.

As they marched down the hall to the training room, Weiss and Blake walked as if they'd been up for hours. Whereas Ruby and herself were slump shouldered and dragging their feet. She needs coffee or something to wake her up. That or a good fight.

As they entered the training room, which was deserted, this early on a Sunday, it was unlikely anyone else would show up, even later in the day.

But…no she was wrong, there was someone else there. Standing in the middle of the arena, in full battle gear, was Thor.

"I see you slept in! Well, let's get to work." He greeted them, that smile of his covering his face. That's when it really hit her, he was almost always smiling. That seemed unusual, even the happy go lucky Nora didn't walk around with a perma-smile like him. Thoughts for another time, now she wanted to know why he was here. And apparently so did Weiss, as she spoke up.

"What are you doing here? This a team exercise!" Weiss shouted at him

"You want to get stronger right?" he said, "Well, then, face the strongest." He said with that smile still on his face. Yang wasn't sure if it was her lack of sleep or the fact it never left his face. But that grin was starting to get on her nerves.

"You want to train with us!" Ruby said excitedly.

Of course, her little sister would like it, she was the only one of the four whom he probably actually considered friends, and she was head over heels for that damn hammer of his. The damn this wasn't even really a hammer, it was more like an ax.

She caught herself in her thoughts, and was certain she needed coffee, she wasn't normally that spiteful.

"Yeah, so you guys get started." Yang said to them all "I need some coffee or I'm going to die, Ruby, you want to come with me?"

Her sister looked caught between the idea of a pick me up, and seeing Thor used his weapon. But the bags under eyes apparently won out, and she followed Yang, shouting "We'll be quick!"

As they left, Thor lifted his hammer saying "Who's first?"

* * *

"Ohh, that's just was I needed" Ruby muttered as she sipped the coffee. She never used to touch the stuff, but now it was a welcomed friend. Looking at her sister, who was carrying a tray of coffee for their team, she began to wonder something.

"Yang, what do you think of Thor?"

Her sister gave her a gaze that made her feel like she was under interrogation before she responded with "Why?"

"Well,…you don't think he might be…I don't know crazy or something? I mean his story about his father and visions. It's….it's weird right?"

Yang had sighed before she answered "I don't Ruby, I don't think so. I mean it's far-fetched, but I've heard of weirder semblances, and I believe he 's honest. For what it's worth, he doesn't seem unhinged."

Ruby nodded as she thought on this. She didn't want him to be crazy, he was cool, and sort of like the big brother she'd never had. She loved Yang and was the best big sister a girl could ask for, but a lot of times she was also kind of like a mom. She wondered what a big brother would be like, and not one who also acted as a parent.

"Do you like him?" she continued.

"I guess he's a kind of cool a guy, a bit too eager to fight, likes to party a bit too much. But he sticks up for people, even if the rest of the school doesn't see it."

"Yang, you pick fights and party all the time," Ruby said, looking at her sister in confusion.

"Yeah, but that different." She said, apparently not taking Ruby's point.

"Either way, that's not what I meant. Would you ever consider, like, dating him?"

That took Yang a bit by surprise, but not enough to really rattle her.

"I mean, he's hot and all. And I like a strong man, but no, why?"

Ruby didn't really want to answer. She had thought her sister might like Thor, at least a little, they were so much alike, and if they started dating, well it would make Thor even more of big brother to her. But she didn't want to tell her sister that, it was far too childish of an idea for her to still be having.

"I've…just got a friend…who might like him…is all." Trying to keep her response as vague as possible.

* * *

Yang did her best to hide her emotions, but she felt an incredibly odd combination of emotions the moment Ruby said that.

Anger, relief, pride and anxiety and…was that jealousy? She had long since thought her earlier ideas of Ruby crush on Thor were simply a mistake, but the "I've got a friend line" was the oldest one when asking for advice for yourself without wanting to admit it.

She was happy her sister was starting to come more out of her shell. She really didn't have a friend outside to teams RWBY and JNPR, much less a boyfriend or girlfriend. Her interest in someone was a relief, she should have really been having crushes way before this.

But she wished it wasn't Thor. Like she said to Ruby, she thought he was pretty cool, but there was the simple fact he slept in the same room as her. That could lead to problems in and of itself. Then there was the fact her personality was so different from his.

True they had a lot in common, but Thor was an extrovert to the extreme and Ruby was extremely introverted.

But, now wasn't the best time to talk to her about it. They had training exercises to do, and Thor had barged his way into that.

She'd leave it for another time.

As they approached the training room and opened the door, they were greeted by a sight of an exhausted and beaten Weiss and Blake.

* * *

Minutes earlier

Weiss stumbled back as Blake landed gracefully next to her. This was insane; they couldn't break his defense.

When he'd offered to fight the two of them together, Weiss wasn't sure if it was overconfidence or bravado. But she had agreed to it.

Now she had wished she'd waited for Ruby and Yang, although she wasn't sure how much of a difference they would make.

He didn't fall for Blake's shadow clone, he broke out of every attempt to restrain him she had tried, and either dodged or blocked all their attacks.

What was so mind boggling was how fast he was. Cardin, who was of similar size, couldn't move with anything near his grace of precision, she dare say he even rivaled or exceeded her in that regard.

But he was also built like a tank, and his attack hit like a truck. He hadn't even used his dust or semblance yet.

She'd seen that first hand on the day of initiation and was glad he hadn't yet pulled it out.

It wasn't fair. He was their age, but he was fighting on a level with her sister, who was one of the best huntresses she'd ever meet.

He was just a first year; he shouldn't be this strong, yet, here he was. She'd trained her whole life to get this far, yet he was miles ahead of her.

Gritting her teeth, she lunged, using her glyphs increase her speed, while locking him in place at the same time, and she had him now.

But Thor didn't look remotely concerned, and as the tip of her sword neared him, he just leaned out of the way, grabbed her wrist, twisted it to make her drop her weapon, and threw her away.

And she landed hard on the ground as Yang and Ruby entered.

* * *

'Holy Crap! What happened to you guys?" Yang shouted, setting down her coffee and the tray, running to her team mates. They didn't look seriously hurt, but they looked exhausted.

"Him." Blake panted, face flushed red for effort. "He's too strong; we aren't going to beat him, at least right now." She finished.

Yang and Ruby looked at Thor as if seeing him in full light for the first time. They'd seen him in action against Grimm, but Weiss and Blake were two of the best student in their year, and he didn't even look tired.

Dropping his hammer, he walked over to Weiss and helped her up.

"Perhaps this wasn't the best way to train you; maybe you should address your short comings first."

"What that supposed to mean?" Weiss shouted defensively.

But Thor didn't bat an eye "You need to work on your stamina, and your instincts, you spend too much time thinking, and not enough acting, you hesitate as a result and give your opponents time to counter."

Yang hadn't expected such a concise response from Thor; she'd expect more along the line of "You're too weak, get stronger." But that was a very intelligence explanation of Weiss's manner in battle.

Looking at Weiss, she saw she thought so as well, but wasn't ready to admit it.

"You." He said pointing to Yang "are the opposite, you don't think at all, you rush in to bulldoze over your opponent, and are so confident of yourself, you leave yourself open to attacks."

'Ouch!' was all Yang could think of, but she knew he was right. But it had always worked for her, so she'd never bothered to change it. "But it works."

"Until you meet someone who can overpower you and go around your semblance, then you are wide open. Think, sometimes it's better to go around an obstacle than through it."

'Okay, he's not bad at this.' She thought.

"Well then, what's Blake's short coming?" Yang asked, as her partner glared at her.

Thor looked at Blake and said "You are truly skilled, speed, skill and grace…you have them in spades, but your ability to finish a tough target on your own is limited. Your weapons don't pack the punch of Ruby's or Weiss, and you don't have a semblance like Yang's to counter this."

"Oh, do me next! Do me! Do me!" Ruby shouted jumping up and down.

"Yours is simple." He said walking up to her and snatching Crescent Rose from her.

"Hey! Give it back!" She shouted jumping, trying to get it, and Thor simply held it over her head, and just held her away with one arm, while the other held Ruby's weapon out of reach.

"You are too dependent on your weapon; you need to increase your combat skills without it." He said before finally throwing it to her.

* * *

Thor felt he'd tipped his hand too much, in his experience and knowledge as well as the information he'd given them. But he meant to prepare them as best he could, and if they got suspicious, then so be it.

"So, with that out of the way, if you'll have me, I'll train you." He said looking from one to the next. Their faces didn't tell him much; he glimpsed embarrassment, but also a bit of admiration.

"Of course! If you train us, we'll be unstoppable, and we are going to win the tournament hands down!" Ruby shouted. "So where do we start!"

Thor smiled at her enthusiasm, but looked to the other's, to see if they were on board. Weiss looked dejected, possibly because he had just hijacked her training regime, but seemed to resign herself to this. Blake and Yang both seemed on board, but Blake looked much calmer about it, Yang appeared to have an intense stare in her eyes.

"Good, we'll start like this. Yang!" he said pointing at her as he spoke, "Take your sister and start giving her the low down in hand to hand combat and don't go easy on her if she can't stand up to your attacks or block them, lay her out."

The sisters looked startled at this, but he continued "it may not be fun, but it's better she takes her like in a practice fight with her sister than an enemy." He said.

"Weiss." He said turning to the white haired girl. "Follow me; I've got something for you." He said as he walked off.

"What about me?!" Blake shouted after them.

"Go look up some weapon designs, something to increase your damage dealt, you need to improve your power, and a weapon is the only way you can achieve that."

Blake looked dejected because she wasn't getting physical training, but went off anyway.

As they reach the end of the room, Thor picked up a vest and tossed it to Weiss.

She caught it and nearly fell to the ground, then stood up straight, and grunted as she lifted it, and asked: "What is this?"

"Weighted, vest, put it and start running laps."

"But you said I was over thinking things! How will this…"

"I also said you stamina needed work; well address that first, then we'll go onto the next."

* * *

Ruby was trying her best and wasn't as bad as he thought, but she had a long way to go.

Weiss was struggling with the weighted vest, but it would do her good in the long run.

Blake had disappeared to the library, and he felt a bit bad about it, but she was probably the most refined fighter of the bunch, where she needed help was in her equipment.

As he watched for a few more moments, Then he called for them to stop.

"Ruby, take five, Yang get your gauntlets, you're going to be sparring with Weiss."

"What!" Weiss shouted, already exhausted from her earlier fight with Thor and her exercise, she wasn't in the mood to fight with Yang of all people.

"You're tired, so use this as an opportunity to relax your mind, and try to let reactions flow. Yang, Weiss is a much craftier fighter than yourself, so practice some level of caution."

* * *

Ruby sat down next to Thor, beaten up, but in good spirits. She didn't have any injury that would heal overnight.

As she watched her sister and friend spar, she noticed that both were moving differently than normal. Yang was more cautious, and Weiss seemed more relaxed, although she thought it might be fatigue for the earlier exertion.

"So Thor, where did you learn so much about fighting?" trying to start up conversation

He glanced sideways at her as he watched the spar "My father taught me many things. He was a great leader."

Ruby felt like she'd been punched in the gut. She'd heard him talk to Yang about his dad last night. That was a complicated relationship, she was certain.

"So." She decided to get right to her point. "Do you like my sister?"

He raised an eyebrow at this and smiled. "She is an exceptional young woman, fiery, powerful, and passionate about her family, yes I'd say I like her."

'Why did they both not get her point on the first go, she didn't want to ask more directly if she didn't have to.'

"No, I mean, would you ever ask her out?"

If Yang didn't feel that way, maybe Thor did. They were perfect for each other; they just didn't know it yet.

Thor laughed one of the quietest laughs she'd ever heard from him "I don't know, sure, I supposed I might. Why?" He turned to look at her, smiling.

"Oh, it's just….nothing."

"What? You can tell me."

"I…no it sounds stupid." She muttered as she blushed. She didn't want to tell him what she was thinking.

"Well, I won't push you then." He said turning back to the spar. "Alright!" he called "That's enough, hit the showers and get something to eat! We'll pick this up again Tuesday!"

"What!" Ruby said, "Why not tomorrow?"

"You need to give your body time to rest; recovery is as important as training, remember that." He said then stretched his back. "Now, I'm starving, hit the showers, and I'll meet you in the cafeteria."

* * *

Blake didn't see this as training, not really. But she saw the logic to it. But her weapon was perfect for her fighting style, modifying it too much could screw it up. She thought maybe making a supplemental piece of equipment might be the way to go. What, she didn't know yet, but Thor had pointed out something she was aware of for some time. She couldn't hurt stronger target on her own, she had to chip away at them as it was, and she'd always thought that was all right. That was until Thor trounced her and Weiss at the same time.

She didn't need something to level a building, but she needed to pack a bigger punch her attacks.

Well, at least she got to read some books while she was at it.

* * *

Thor walked down the hall to the cafeteria, his gear stowed in a locker. He'd thought it had gone reasonably well; he'd helped them each a bit in area's they were weak.

As he thought about it, someone stepped out in front of him from one of the classrooms. It took him a moment to recognize Cardin. In full combat gear, carrying his mace over his shoulder.

"Well, if it isn't the bunny lover?" He said smirking. As he did so his team mates walking out behind, ready to fight with their weapons.

"Oh, so this is when you either try to intimidate me into apologizing, or you assault me?" Thor said smirking at them. He wasn't remotely afraid of them. They were skilled enough in their own right, but even without a weapon, he'd be able to deal them.

Cardin gritted his teeth his flippancy. "You know what, just get him!" he shouted, apparently still stinging from his past humiliation.

His three goons rushed, their weapons drawn. The first Thor punched in the throat, causing him to gasp, drop his weapon and clutching his throat.

Taking advantage of opening Thor grabbed and threw him into one of his teammates. Sending them both flying hard enough into the wall it cracked.

The third was quicker than the first two, but Thor just ducked under his wild swing, grabbed his collar and belt and lifted him up and brought him down onto the ground head first, knocking him out cold.

Thor looked at his handy work, smirking. But just he did, he had Cardin rushing him, Mace over his head, shouting.

But before he could land a hit he felt his feet leave the floor. But he wasn't even close to Thor. Confusion crossed his face, then he felt it. The wind was whipping around him; he was caught in a miniature tornado.

Looking Thor in the face and saw the smile that now irritated him so much. Thor waved to him before he felt a gale force wind carry him down the hall to the Cafeteria.

* * *

Jaune sat with his team eating breakfast, nothing too out the ordinary. Then the doors burst open with hurricane force winds, and a body was thrown violently onto the table he was eating.

He was proud of himself for not screaming as he would use to do. But he still ducked and covered as his food and everyone else was thrown everywhere.

After the sudden commotion, he took the time to see who had just thrown into the cafeteria. And with no small sense of pleasure, he saw it was Cardin, his tormentor, as well as the tormentor many others students.


	3. Taking a Breather

A/N: Okay, next chapter.

This one will go to the end of Volume 1, which is one I was having a hard time writing. The fact is, I don't want to change canon events to much until the end of Volume 3, so I'm trying to be careful not to do anything that could alter the line of the story to much until then.

As a result I'm not doing as much as I want in these first few chapters, but once I get Volume 3, that is when the story line is really going to diverge.

Either way tell me in the reviews.

Chapter 2

* * *

Thor sat glumly in Ozpin's office. Thinking of what a complete farce this was. He'd just defend himself this time and at a marked disadvantage. That he might be punished for it, it rankled him.

But this was his second offense in three days, and that probably didn't bode well for him. He didn't think he'd get expelled for this action, given the situation this time, but Thor was going to quickly be wearing out the patience of the staff here if he got into a fight every other day with other students.

He brooded on these thoughts, Ozpin entered and sat at his desk. Thor was briefly tempted to start to explain himself but had decided to wait until the headmaster had his say.

"Well, Mr. Odinson, you've managed to manhandle Mr. Winchester and his team yet again. This time unarmed while they were." He paused to take a sip from his coffee "I'd be more impressed if it weren't for the fact it was an unsanctioned fight in the hall of the school, much like the other day."

Thor clenched his jaw shut, trying desperately not to say anything.

"But, this time, I am aware that it was Mr. Winchester who was the instigator, not you, so this time you'll just get a warning." Ozpin calmly said to him.

Thor felt his shoulder drop in relief; he didn't even know he'd tensed them up.

"However, I fully expect you not to seek retribution for this attack, if this feud continues, you and Mr. Winchester will be expelled. Do I make myself clear?" He said, his tone unchanging.

Thor nodded "Crystal sir. But what's going to happen to his team now?"

Ozpin sipped from his Coffee again "I'm not going to discuss another student's punishment with you, so please go enjoy your Sunday."

Thor knew that was the end of it, and turned and left the headmasters' office.

* * *

Ozpin didn't like surprises all that much. More often than not, they meant something bad. But, this was…He wouldn't say good, given four students had been hurt in the result, but interesting.

He'd known Thor was unique since he'd found the boy, but to dismantle a whole team, an armed team, with no weapons and just his semblance. That was the mark of something only seen once every dozen generations.

He'd thought Miss Nikos was that, and he still thought she was in many ways, and if his plan worked, she might exceed even that. But Thor seemed to be far too natural at fighting; it seemed more like he was just very experience than anything else. But that was impossible, he'd followed the boy for two years before he came to Beacon, and even if he had spent his whole like fighting up until that point, his skills and knowledge seem preternaturally refined for someone his age.

He'd seen many prodigies come and go, but even the best of them still couldn't be naturally good at the only thing that could be gained with time, that was experience.

But Thor seemed to have, somehow, despite his age, he had it. That was something to look into more. Maybe it was the time that boy becomes more of a priority than he had been before.

* * *

Thor, finally getting something to eat, with piles of empty plates surrounding him, he belched and got up. The other students had given a wide berth after the second Cardin incident. Not that the boy had many supporters, but the other students seemed leery of approaching him now, possibly because they thought he might be a new bully.

Thor scowled at this thought. That's not how he wanted to be thought of; maybe he should take a low profile for the next few days, give everyone a chance to calm down.

As he exited the cafeteria, he thought of how he was going to spend the day, in a quiets as a manner as he could.

He could go into the city but didn't find that exceptionally appealing; he'd just been there. The Library didn't hold much interest for him either. He'd already done his exercises for the day.

He decided just to see where his feet would take him.

With that, he set off around the school.

* * *

He'd ended up in the city at any rate. The city itself was interesting enough, but the air felt tense, and he supposed it couldn't be avoided. The string of robberies occurring with such frequency was off putting too many.

He found himself getting hungry again, which was something that irritated him. His body was almost always starved for energy, and he ate like a monster whenever he did get a meal. It wasn't that he hated eating, on the contrary, he loved to feast and revel, but this need for constant energy input felt like such a short coming, it made him feel vulnerable in this body.

'In this body,' the thought was such an odd one because it wasn't a new body for him, just his old one stripped of its power, or most of it anyway. He felt anemic now, and frankly, it was another reason for the bravado, it helped put him at ease about his weakened state.

Still, the die was cast in that regard, and not all signs were gloomy. Thor was still far stronger than the average Huntsman, and he still had all his skills and experience to call on.

But there were still thing he didn't fully understand about his human form. For one, how he had made his gear. He considered himself reasonably intelligent, but not a master of the forge or technology, yet he's recreated a reasonable reproduction of his weapon. But he didn't remember how he'd done it. It was almost like he had instinctively done it like some force was guiding him while he'd done it. He understood how it worked, but it felt someone else's thoughts in his head.

That was one of the reason's he refused to tell Ruby about his equipment in any real detail. He didn't know the origin of his thoughts and didn't know what might happen if he let that information out to the young girl. She may get hurt, and he couldn't live with himself if she did.

She was peculiar, one of the best fighters in the school, yet so innocent still, in many ways she seemed younger than her years. But at the same time, she could be remarkably insightful. She was an odd duck for sure. But he liked her, she was so genuine, and he'd found that to be a rare trait in people. The desires to try and hook him up with his older sister was, well not typical of a child, but something he'd imagined other kids had tried with some of their older siblings.

Her sister was likable as well, in fact, he enjoyed the whole team's company, even if Blake was a bit quiet and distant, and Weiss was a bit stuck up and judgmental. They were all good people, but they had their quirks that could be either funny or infuriating.

Yang's flirtatious attitude was funny to watch as she turned it on her classmates. Watching them stutter and bumble over themselves. She's never tried it on him; he was pretty sure he'd defused that on his first day here.

Weiss, however, was a bit of a know it all, a perfectionist, and pushy. And it made him home sick; she reminded him of his brother in many ways.

Blake was too quiet for his taste, and he felt like she was hiding something. Not from him, at least not in the sense she had a responsibility to tell him. He wasn't on her team. But he felt like she was hiding something from her team. What he couldn't be sure.

As his thoughts continued, he headed to a burger shop to get something to eat, and his thoughts wandered back to the effects of this body.

Another was this was this body was biologically a teen ager still. That meant hormones were firing, and his impulse control wasn't the best. That wasn't great for him, given even under normal circumstances he wasn't exactly cool headed. He was willing to beat that impulse control issue was why he'd attacked Cardin in the first place.

As he ate, he pondered this problem. He'd have to be more controlled. He was much better than the last time he'd gone through it, but he didn't need any more slip ups.

* * *

"I can't believe that dolt did it again! He's going to get himself expelled at this rate!" Weiss ranted as they sat in their dorm, finishing up homework.

"But Weiss, they started it!" Ruby defended.

"You don't know that! But either way, two major incidents inside a week? He's not doing himself any favors!"

"What the matter?" Yang chimed in, smiling "Afraid he'll be gone before you can ask him to the dance?"

Weiss scoffed and turned a little red; she was so easy to embarrass. "Of course not! But he promised to help train us, remember? Not to mention he's the only the who knows anything about these…dreams." She said pausing before saying the last word, still not ready to call them visions.

That rang true. But they all knew, given the information, that Cardin's team had was armed as if ready for a mission, that it was far more likely they had instigated the fight.

No this was just Weiss, being Weiss. She always worried, and even if the outcome she wanted was possible, she still worried.

* * *

The next day, Ruby was getting scared. Thor hadn't come back the night before and wasn't in class. She feared he'd been expelled as Weiss had predicted. But a quick conversation with the teachers told them that wasn't the case. Indeed they didn't know where he was; he just hadn't shown up for class.

"Yang, what if he'd been kidnapped, or hurt or….or…." he eyes filled with tears at the thought.

"Relax Ruby; he's more than capable of handling himself, I'm betting he's just taking a breather. "

"From what?! It's not like this is hard for him?!" Ruby said near hysterics.

"Look, you need to calm down, you can't freak out like this, and it won't do any good," Yang said trying to calm her sister down.

"But what if he's dead."

"He's not dead Ruby," Yang said in an even steady voice.

"No no, he's dead, he's dead, I know it."

"Oh my God. Ruby, he's not dead just calm down, he's probably just doing his own thing right now, he'll be back." At least Yang hoped he would be.

* * *

Thor didn't know why he'd decided to stay out, not exactly. But he needed a break from school, a bit of time to be himself.

And he'd found something that allowed him to do just that. Many of the seedier bars had underground fights. He'd been taking part in these bare knuckle brawls, giving him an outlet for his frustration, and put some extra money in his pocket.

He currently was undefeated in the local area. The betting odds were heavily in his favor. He planned to give it a week; then he'd bet against himself, then throw the fight. Not the most honorable thing to do, but taking money out of the pockets of the crooks who ran these things always felt good.

His odd's sat at 1 to 5, but he'd bet they'd be higher by Friday, which is when he planned to head back.

He didn't feel great about this whole thing, but at the same time, it felt…cathartic. He wasn't getting knock down drag out brawls at Beacon; the spars were far too controlled. No, he needed a more animalistic thrill.

The problem was the quality of opponents here was far lower than at Beacon. The fights felt more real but were far less challenging.

But he needed some extra cash, or rather, he'd like it, just in case.

* * *

Ruby didn't know what to think. It felt as if the family she'd started to grow at Beacon was falling apart, and it wasn't even the second semester. Thor was gone to parts unknown, and Blake had bugged out after her argument with Weiss.

She was ready to cry, and Weiss wasn't sympathetic to the situation. Yang was doing her best, but it was terrible for her too. She missed Thor, but she missed Blake far more, she was her partner, and while Ruby was confident she was fond of Thor, Blake was her real partner.

It was like the world was collapsing around her, and she in some vague way felt like it was her fault. This was her team, and while Thor wasn't on their team, she still felt in some way responsible for his disappearance.

* * *

Thor watched as his opponent sailed across the ring and crumpled onto the floor. Another win, and more cash in his pocket.

He walked out to the cheers of the crowd, giving them no mind. He walked into the office of the bar owner, to collect his winnings. But instead, he was greeted by a person's who appearance he only knew from the news feed.

Roman Torchwick, the most wanted criminal in Vale.

"If it isn't the King of the Ring himself." He said in a tone of voice that just made Thor distrust him. "I gotta say, I'm impressed, not many people can beat their way through the entire roster of Vales cage fighters, let alone so quickly, and without injury." He said puffing on his cigar. "But it's not just that you've won, but won easily. I'd say you're a cut above the ordinary."

"What do you want?" Thor asked, feeling a chill run down his spine as if there was another person in the room, one he couldn't see. That wasn't good, the enemy you couldn't see was always the most dangerous.

"I want to recruit you; not many people have that talent for violence that you have." He said puffing on his cigar. "But you… You're more than a talented fighter…And a student."

So he knew he was a student, well he didn't suppose that was unexpected. It wasn't exactly a secret, and anyone who cared to investigate him would find out. Now of the people involved in these underground fights didn't care to look into it.

But Torchwick was a cut above the ordinary criminal; he'd take a deeper look. He'd had thought some of the higher criminal underworld was involved in these fights.

"Now, I'm not going to bother who did what to you or what they injected you with, we can discuss that later, so will you come to work for me?" he said in a way that told Thor Torchwick was certain he'd get what he wanted.

"What makes you think I would?"

"Come on kid, you're a student at Beacon, or at least you were, haven't been to class for a while have you, but here you are in street fights to make cash." He puffed on his cigar again, "I'm not sure why you changed your mind, but I'm betting something upset you enough to break away, am I right?"

No, he wasn't, not exactly anyway. It wasn't much more than pure boredom and a desire for some extra cash. That and desire to reclaim a bit of his old life.

"Sorry, but I'm not interested in your offer," Thor said in a tone that said he wasn't sorry.

Torchwick's cigar went limp in his mouth, showing his surprise. But he regained his composure quickly enough. "Now don't be too hasty, I pay well, much more than these fights get you, or what you could ever make as a hunter."

"No, I don't think so."

"That's a shame," Torchwick said, snapping his fingers.

Had he not already been on his guard, Thor was sure the attack would have hit home at his heart. But he'd been suspicious of another person in the room, and managed just barely to sidestep the narrow blade, that seemed to materialize out of the air.

Turning on his heels, he saw a young woman, carrying a parasol. The first thing he noticed was her brown and pink hair. Next was she was winking at him.

He lunged at her, but as he reached her, she shattered like glass, and then she was gone. Turning, he faced Torchwick, but before he would even attack, only for him to shatter and disappear as well.

"Damn it!" he shouted as he slammed his fist on the desk. Would he always fall for that same trick? It never mattered who did it; he kept falling for the same damn trick.

* * *

Days Later, at the Docks

The fight wasn't going well at all for them. Torchwick was much stronger than Blake had expected, and even the arrival of her team mates wasn't tipping the scale as heavily in their favor as it should have. The White Fang foot soldiers was a much higher quality than the standard infantry used.

Even the intervention of Ruby's new friend Penny wasn't as helpful as it should have been. Torchwick had help, a girl, who was far more dangerous than Torchwick himself. She was holding off Penny while the foot soldiers and Torchwich handled her and the others.

She had led them and Sun into this mess, and she didn't know how to get them out, and it seemed nothing short of divine intervention would save them now.

* * *

Thor landed on the roof of the warehouse that overlooked the commotion. He'd been following Torchwick for weeks now staying gone now much longer than he had intended, and now he had finally caught up with him, and it both surprised him and at the same time didn't, to see Ruby and Blake fighting him and his cronies. Two more were there as well, but he didn't know them.

Surveying the battle, he noticed the girl who attacked him in the bar was fighting with the red headed girl. Both were far above the standard of other student aged huntresses. That battle seemed fairly evenly matched.

But Ruby, Blake, and the boy were pinned down by the sheer volume of fire from….were those White Fang members?

That struck him as odd. Why were they working with Torchwick? From his understanding of the White Fang, they wouldn't cooperate with him on principle of him being a human.

Banishing the thought from his mind, he looked to Ruby and her friends. They were hunkered behind a shipping containing that was slowly getting chewed away by the sheer firepower of the opposing force. They couldn't make a break for it or return fire with being turned into chum.

Pulling out his scroll, he called for his locker, vacation time was over.

* * *

"We need to get out from behind here, or we'll be torn to shred!" Sun shouted in Blake's ear.

She knew that she didn't need him telling her. But she wasn't sure how they'd do it without someone getting severally hurt or even killed.

Then she caught a familiar scent on the air. Could it be? He'd been gone for weeks now, what were the odds.

There was a loud "KRRR-ACK!" and a bright flash of light, then the gun fire ceased. Blake didn't take the time to check to see if all the troops were down, she just ran out from behind the container, to see dozens of White Fang members rolling on the ground, stunned by a powerful electrical shock.

Torchwick was on his knees, but beginning to rise. Before he got all the way up, however, something slammed into his chest, sending him violently into another steel shipping container.

At that moment Blake recognized Thor's hammer as it flew backward away from Torchwick as he gasped for air.

Blake turned to watch the hammer fly back to its owner, and see Thor catch it midair as he came crashing down to the ground, landing on his feet.

Blake couldn't help but think of comic book hero's she'd seen when she was younger.

* * *

"You are very slippery, but you have nowhere to run now," Thor said as he walked calmly to Torchwick, hammer at the ready.

"Oh, you think so blondie? I'm a survivor, I'm not gonna be stopped by an upstart punk like you."

"Really? Looks like you already have." Thor said, and then threw his hammer again, and once again, Roman's image shattered.

"No!" Thor shouted as he called his hammer back and turned to look at the other fight going on, and sure enough, the girl was gone, and so was the red head.

"RRRAAAHH!" Thor shouted to the sky and hit the nearest container as hard he could.

* * *

Ruby watched in surprise as Thor hammered a container hard enough to send it flying into another, causing both to crumple under the force.

But that was quickly forgotten as she realized Thor was back. Combined with finding Blake, it was like a huge weight was lifted off her shoulders.

"Thor!" she cried and ran up to him, tackling him, well jumping into him at least, he was too heavy for her to knock over."Oh my God, I thought you were dead!"

Thor looked confused only for a moment, but his expression turned into a soft smile, and he patted her on the head. "Of course I'm not dead, nothing can kill the Mighty Thor." He said with a much softer version of his standard bluster.

Ruby broke the hug and turned to see Blake approaching them. She looked at Thor and said "Thanks for the save."

Before he could respond, Yang and Weiss appeared. Yang looked shocked to see them all there, Weiss, however, looked mad.

"You!" she said pointing at Thor, who despite towering over her, flinched. "Do you have any idea how far behind you are? Not to mention you promised to help train us, and you just up and disappear? You are going to be explaining a lot mister!"

Ruby giggled at this, typical Weiss, turning this into a reason to critique. But then Weiss turn to Blake, and something Ruby didn't expect happened.

* * *

Being chastised by a girl half his size was a bit demeaning. But he'd been so caught up in what he was doing over these past weeks chasing Torchwick, he'd totally forgotten about what he was supposed to be doing at Beacon. Academics aside, he'd promised to train them.

But as he watched Weiss talk to Blake, that thought seeped out again, now he was curious as to what sort of falling out the two had.

It wasn't really his business anyway, but he couldn't deny his curiosity. However, the two seemed to of made up and were friends again.

Now what he needed to concern himself with, was what he was going to do when he got back to school.

* * *

"You understand," Ozpin said to him as he sipped his coffee. "You have a great deal of ground to cover, you were absent for quite some time. Your assignments are quiet back logged, and there are some tests you have to make up."

"Yes sir, I am aware," Thor responded quietly.

"I must tell you, that this will be extremely hard, but if you can catch up before the end of this semester, you still have a good chance of passing the year."

Thor as astronomically mad at himself for this cataclysmic lapse in judgment. How could he of not thought of this? He wasn't a bad student, but his skill was in practical application, not the written area.

"I would suggest getting a tutor to help you, we have a number test coming up for the end of the semester." Ozpin took another sip of coffee "I wish you good luck."

With that Thor knew he was dismissed and left, heading straight for the Library, he needed to get started now.

* * *

Ozpin wondered about the boy, and why he'd disappeared for so long. Now it wasn't unusual for students to sometimes crack under pressure and take a short leave of absences, but those were normally no more than a few days, or a week at most. If they were gone much longer, they didn't usually come back.

But here Thor was, ready to continue. That told him that the boy's story was true, at least for the most part, what had started out as an intended week off, turned into a multi-week man hunt. That in and of itself was concerning if the boy could let something consume him so thoroughly. He'd felt he's been insulted and was driven to avenge that insult.

Had Team RWBY not meet up with him and reminded him of what he wasn't doing by being out, he'd probably of kept on hunting Torchwick.

Frankly had the boy not show such promise he may not have considered even letting him try and make up for his absence.

But he wanted him close by, to keep an eye on him.

* * *

"Five down, sixty to go," Thor mumbled as he finished yet another late assignment. At this rate, he might be able to catch up, but he still needed to study for his makeup tests.

He looked around his room as he pondered what he'd done to himself.

He's really gotten himself in a rears here.

"How's it going?" A voice said from behind him. Turning he saw Yang smirking at him. She wasn't a cruel girl by nature, but she did enjoy it a bit when her friends did something to bite them in the rear.

"As well as be expected, but I'm making progress." He said.

"Look, I'm not great at this sort of stuff, but you're probably going to need some help." She said.

Thor just grunted at this.

"Look, I don't want to see you crash and burn, I still want to get a chance to fight you in the ring." She said in a tone that made it clear that she was trying to lighten the mood. "We've been training with your tips, the one you had given us before you disappeared. I mean, they're working well, Blake even made upgrades to her gear, and Weiss has a lot more stamina. Ruby can hold her own without her weapon, and me…I'd like to think I more cautious."

"Well," Thor said as he opened another book "that is good, but if I want to stay, I need to get these assignments done. " he said as he got back to work.

"But what about those visions? You haven't forgotten about those have you?" her tone was a bit worried.

"Of course not." He responded, but in truth, they had floated out of the fore front of his mind, never leaving, but he'd gotten so worked up over his own issues, it had been overshadowed.

"Thor, please" she started "We may not be showing it, but me, Weiss, Blake and Ruby, especially Ruby, are worried."

Thor closed his book, and looked at her." I know, but all you can do is make yourself stronger, and for the time being, you don't need my help. You know what to do, for now, continue on that path when I've corrected my mistakes here, I'll be back to help you."

Yang looked upset at this answer, but if he were expelled, he'd be gone for good, and no one wanted that. He's been caught up in three weeks, or so he calculated at this rate, so in that time they could still improve.

"Why did you leave?"

That…caught him off guard. "I needed a break." He responded.

"Yeah, I heard that much, but what did you need a break from us or what?" her tone an odd mix of accusing and hurt feelings.

"No, it wasn't you, it was…" he trailed off, trying to think what it really was. "It was the rest of the school, after that second fight with Cardin, everyone was leery around me like they thought I might turn into him. If it was just that, I might have been able to handle it, but I've heard the other students talk about me. To them, I'm…an oddity, not for my personality, but my ability, I can't relate to most of them. I've tried to be personable, but…I'm still separated, alone." This was how'd he felt for a long time, but talking about seemed to solidify it in his mind.

"You're not alone." She said with more energy in her voice "You have us!"

Thor smiled sadly at her, she may think that, and she was right, after a fashion. But she couldn't really understand, not really. Like how a non-Faunus couldn't understand their persecution.

"You don't understand." He said as he turned back to his book.

"What don't I understand!" she near shouted. Startling Thor "That you were abandoned by your dad? That he doesn't want anything to do with you?"

No, not really, that wasn't what was bothering him, not really, it was they couldn't possibly comprehend what his situation was. But her point was still a bone of contention for him, his issues with his father.

"I know what it's like to have a parent not want you around." She said with a somber face.

"What…what are you talking about?"

"My mother, my biological mother, not Ruby's mom, abandoned my dad and me when I was still really young."

Thor looked at her quizzically. He wondered why she would share this with him, then he remembered his own story, for the visions. He couldn't reveal his hand on the issue, his real story, so he'd probably have to listen, and frankly, he wanted to. This was clearly a weight she was carrying with her for some time.

"I'm sorry… I didn't mean to dredge up bad memories."

Yang's face seemed to come a bit her senses like she had momentarily lost a bit of control. "Sorry, I didn't mean to lay that on you." She said, apparently a bit ashamed of her out burst.

"No, I called my problems on you, you should be able to do the same." He set his book down "Tell me."

"It's..just what I said, my mother left us. I've been looking for her…But she apparently doesn't want anything to do with me." He voice got softer.

Thor could sympathize, an unwanted child, or at least an indifferent parent, he's seen that and the damage it caused.

Thor stood up and placed a large hand on Yang's shoulder and said: "We are not our parents, nor are bound by their short comings." He said "If your mother doesn't want to be involved in your life, it's her loss. You are a brave, kind, and powerful young woman, I don't know a single sane person who'd not want you as a daughter."

* * *

Yang looked into Thor startling blue eyes, perplexed. He seemed like such a stereotypical jock at times, but when it really mattered, he was incredibly insightful.

His word, while nowhere near to actually helping her issues with her mother, still offered a good deal of comfort.

"How did you get this wise?" she said smirking.

Thor grinned back "Why I've lived a thousand life times, didn't you know?"

"You jerk," Yang said punching him in the shoulder.

She had no idea how truthful he was being, but he 'd managed to turn her mood around.

Yang laughed silently at this. She didn't know how he was able to turn the mood so quickly, but it was welcome. "So, you want a study partner or not?", she said trying to get the conversation back on the track she had initially intended, she allowed herself to get off the rails to easily, so that was something else she needs to work on.

"Who'd you have in mind?" he said looking her over as if searching for a tell or give away.

"Oh, you know her, I'll send her around tonight, she'll meet you in the library.

"It's a date", he said smiling, then turning back to his book.

* * *

Thor was sitting at a library table, piles of books around him. Blake crept approaching him, mentally readying herself for the smell he gave off. It wasn't so bad now, she'd gotten used to it, but if she was caught unaware, it still made her heart rate spike.

"Thor." She said from behind him, causing him to look up, with a bit of a confused expression on his face.

"Blake, I'm sorry, are you the one Yang sent?"

"Indeed I am, is that a problem?" He said in a concerned tone, wondering if she'd upset him somehow, given his confused look.

"No, its fine, I just thought she was going send Weiss, the girl is an academic dynamo." He said, the confused look being replaced with his trademark smile.

She felt like someone, who had their hand on her back and was pushing down had suddenly released it. That was good, it would make what she wanted to achieve easier.

She wanted to help him of course, but she wanted to study him. He was hiding something, she of all people could tell when someone had a secret. The hypocrisy wasn't lost on her, but her own curiosity was overwhelming her. It wasn't just that she was sure he was hiding something, but then there was the odd scent of his.

"Okay, so for starters, what assignment are you working on right now?" she said taking the seat next to him.

He pushed his paper to her to let her have a look. It was a Grimm studies assignment she remembers completing herself, it hadn't been all that hard, but she spotted several areas Thor needed improvement on.

She wasn't sure if it was his general work skill level or just the fact he was playing catch up, but it needed some work.

"Okay Thor you see this here?" she said point to one of his sentences.

* * *

Three weeks later

Thor wasn't used to feeling exhaustion, but he felt utterly ragged. Not physically, but mentally. Blake was much harder tutor than he'd imagined. She wasn't harsh in tone or action, but she had high standards. Their first night working together she made him give her the assignments he'd already completed and forced him to redo them.

He'd been mad at first, but after getting his grades back for the paper's he'd handed in. Then there was the studying for the makeup tests, which was hard enough as it was, given the final tests before the term was approaching and trying to study for that without the previous base studies was impossible.

But with this last paper he handed in Professor Port, he'd finally caught up to all his back logged assignments and finished his makeup tests.

He imagined he'd feel relieved if this was all he needed to do. But the mental race wasn't over. He still had the tests coming up to get ready for. Granted, all the data he absorbed in these past weeks was still floating around in his head, he needed still make sure he didn't flunk those tests.

He needed good grades, given his attendance was now in tatters, and that counted for something in the overall grade as well.

But, as he told Ruby the first day he'd helped them train, rest was necessary to, if he suffered a breakdown or overload, well that would worse than just doing poorly.

He was going to take a nap, or more likely sleep through to the next day, then he'd spend his weekend recharging his batteries. After that, it was back to the grind.

* * *

"I miss Thor," Ruby said as she and her team trained, still using Thor's tips, but have long since moved past just using them. They had started working on spotting each other's weaknesses and addressing them as well.

"I know you do baby sister, but there's nothing we can do right now, he's gotta make up for what he missed," Yang said as she wiped herself down with a towel after her spar with Ruby.

"But we haven't gotten to train with him since the first day, and look at what we learned from just that! If he could just watch us and give us tips, that would be huge!"

Yang got that, in a way at least, but she doubted Thor could concentrate on his homework and watch them at the same time. He probably wouldn't want to, he'd stop as soon as the fights started. She knew because she'd do the same thing, and of all of team RWBY, he was most like him and felt she knew him best.

Sure Ruby was probably closest to him, but Yang felt like she knew him better than her little sister did, what he'd do and how'd he react to certain things.

Not like she was a mind reader, but if the personalities of the team were compared to Thor, Yang was the only one who was even close to him.

That by no means she could predict his movements or thoughts, she just had a bit of a better idea of his emotions and reactions.

"Ruby, I know what you mean, but that's not a good idea for him. Just relax, he'll be back here before you know it. Now, how about we hit the showers and get a good night's rest, tomorrow is Saturday, and I don't want to waste it."

Ruby made a groan of disappointment but followed her sister to the showers.

* * *

"So…" Ruby began to say as she shampooed her hair in the locker room shower "What do you think he was up to while he was gone?"

Yang looked over the stall at her sister, a confused look on her face "Who?"

"Thor! He was gone for so long, what do you think he was doing?"

"Oh, well he told us didn't he, he started off trying to make his head, had a run in with Torchwick and went berserk looking for him. It isn't exactly complicated Ruby." She said as she rinsed her own hair.

"But…he left us for so long, just for that? To settle a grudge?" Ruby said quietly before rinsing her own hair.

That was not something wanted to really talk to her sister about. Had this been someone else, she may have thought there was more to the story. But in this case, she didn't, that he'd gotten caught up in bullheaded missions and lost track of anything else.

She didn't want to have to tell her sister that people could just be that selfish sometimes, even if they were generally good people.

Thor didn't strike her as a selfish person in general, but he didn't always think of his actions beyond how they'd affect him.

"I believe he meet someone," Ruby said out of nowhere, causing Yang to lift an eyebrow in confusion.

"What, like a girl or something?" Yang said while suppressing an laugh at the idea.

"Yeah! Think about it!" He's secretive about what happened, and if you question him about the specifics he just re-directs the conversation!"

Yang didn't want to poke holes in everything wrong with Ruby's assumptions. There were literally tons of reasons why Thor didn't go into detail. The idea that Ruby thought this was a legitimate possibility was a sign to Yang her little sister still harboring a crush on the older boy.

Well, a little bit of the truth would be good for her now, at least put her mind at ease.

"Ruby, I'm certain that's not the case." But as she said this she felt a knot in her stomach. It took her a minute to realize she wasn't all that certain. Thor was a notorious flirt, and while she'd yet to see him on anything other than one date, he had the air of swagger she'd seen in other guys who really liked to play the field.

She couldn't be certain, not really.

* * *

Yang reaction to the question was subtle but clear to Ruby. Her face after she had said she was confident he hadn't met someone. In her head, she was screaming "I knew it!" Yang had a thing for Thor. Now it was just a matter of getting to date, then get married, and Thor would officially be her big brother.

Turning from his sister Ruby sniggered to herself, letting the noise from the shower cover the sound.

"Ruby? You alright?" Yang called over the stall.

"Yeah, just…needed to sneeze." She grimaced at the weak answer.

"Well." Her sister called back, shutting her how shower "finish up and we'll head back to the room."

"Yup, sure thing!"

* * *

Back in their room, Ruby and Yang both pondered the same question. "How to get my sister a date with the guy she is crushing on?"

Both totally oblivious to the fact that the other was thinking the same thing.

Yang's issue was this, Ruby wasn't exactly socially active. She was forming friendships, but it was on a relatively slow and on a limited scale, and at this rate, her getting a date wasn't likely.

She usually wouldn't have pressed the issue, but there was a school dance next semester, and she'd hate to see her sister miss out on it. The other issue was they guy she liked, or so far as Yang thought it, was one of the most quintessential "cool guys." Yang had ever seen. The fact he was still single was a shocker to her. He was so good looking it wasn't fair, he was strong, and he was genuinely kind. A guy like that shouldn't exist, at least not a school. Ruby wasn't going to ask him herself, she probably thought he was out of her league.

The Crux of Ruby's problem was this. Thor and Yang were too similar, and there for to stubborn to admit what was right in front of them. Both were proud and thought the other should make the first move, that had to be it given they hadn't even gone out on a date yet. Both were strong, blonde and extroverted. They both loved to fight and party. But they were also full of compassion and empathy. Not to mention Thor was like the big brother she'd always wanted.

Ruby's mind wandered to the idea of Thor becoming a real part of their family. She imagined Thor being like her uncle Qrow to the kids she might have one day if the person she was crushing on ever got wise to her signels Granted, she wasn't sure her signals were the right ones to send the idea of interest, she wasn't sure they had gotten the idea.

But as she thought, her mind wandered back to what she was originally thinking, how to get her sister and Thor together.

* * *

As Thor dragged his feet back to his room, he was stopped by a familiar face.

"Mr. Arc, is there something I can help you with?"

"Yeah actually, if we could…talk in private if that's okay?"

Thor really didn't want to, he was mentally wiped and wanted to go to sleep. But the boy looked like a lost puppy, and he couldn't help but feel sorry for him, what ever his issue was.

"Sure, let's step outside." He said as he walked to the door to the dorms.

* * *

Jaune spoke first, once they were out of ear shot "How do you do it?"

Thor was confused at this. Clearly, the boy hadn't thought of how to start the conversation. Thor replied, "Do what?"

Jaune looked embarrassed and flushed red " Sorry. What I wanted to ask was how do you get all these girls to fall head over heels in love with you?"

Still confused Thor responded "What girls."

Jaune let out an exasperated sigh "Like ninety percent of the girls in our year won't stop giving you those love struck eyes! I hear them talking, at lunch or during breaks, how they want you, to get you to go out with them or get you to ask them out!"

"Ahhh," Thor said. This boy wanted girl advice, well best to start with him understanding some thing. "Well, for starters, those girls aren't in love with me, they are infatuated with me, that is a very different emotion Mr. Arc."

Jaune didn't seem at all comforted by this, he still seemed agitated. "Okay, but still, I can't get one girl to give me the time of day, you get almost the entire female student body pinning for you."

Now he got it "Is this about Weiss?" Thor said, knowing the answer.

Jaune sighed "Yeah, she won't give me the time of day, but I'm nuts about her."

"What about her do you find so appealing if I may ask?" Thor didn't think Weiss much of romantic, but this boy most certainly was.

"She' beautiful, smart, a great fighter." He started "She seems cold, but that just a shell, I'm sure of it, she's really kind and compassionate, and she's so talented, have you heard her sing?"

Thor saw the boys point, even if he didn't find the girl attractive due to her snobbish nature. But Jaune was looking past that to her core. The problem he was having was Weiss was certain he was just after her name.

Now Thor knew that before Jaune had even met her, he had no clue who she was, and even then the reality of her family status hadn't even know really meant anything to this kid.

"Look." Thor said "What I've got going for me, well, no matter what it is, is me. You need to find something that works for you. A bit of confidence would help."

That was something the boy lacked, he was so uncertain of himself, despite a marked improvement in his skills since the start of the school year. Something had him scared, he was sure.

"Easy for you to say. Look at you! It's like you walked straight out of a comic book or movie." Jaune said gesturing at Thor in general sweeping motions.

"Look," Thor said, feeling his own fatigue to start setting in."Weiss thinks you just after her family name, I'd suggest proving her wrong in this regard. If she believes you genuinely like her for who she is, then I'm confident she'll give you a shot."

Jaune looked confused, but Thor didn't have the energy to keep going. "Trust me on this, but for now I need some sleep. Goodnight Jaune."

With that, he headed back to his room. Leaving Jaune to his own thoughts.

* * *

On his way back to his room, Thor noticed Weiss making her way to what he assumed was the same destination.

"Weiss!" he called "May I have a word with you?"

Weiss looked a bit shocked, but responded in an even measured tone "I suppose it would be alright."

Thor gestured for her to follow him down the hall to the dead end section of the hallway, which she did, but not without a slight look of concern.

As they reached the destination, Thor turned to face her and said "Tell me about Jaune Arc," it wasn't a question, just a simple statement.

Weiss made a huffing noise before responding "What about him?"

"The boy is rather fond of you, as I'm sure you know."

Weiss scoffed at this "I've seen it before." She responded, "I'm a famous heiress to a wealthy dust company, I'm used to people courting me for my family name and wealth."

She was cold, Thor couldn't deny that. But it wasn't in her nature, he was sure of that, it was something her environment had forced her to build.

"You know." Thor began "that boy isn't even aware of your families' wealth, he doesn't have a clue as to what your family is worth."

Weiss's eye widened at this, but she was on the attack again "What makes you say that?"

Thor shrugged "I've spoken to him sometimes, you call him a dolt, and in some ways that are correct. He's not really aware of people in your world, or Miss Nikos for that matter." He had stopped for a moment before he continued "The boy isn't as shallow as you believe him to be. He is kind hearted and well intentioned. "He paused for a moment, "I think you should give the boy a chance."

Weiss was silent for a couple minutes after this, pacing back and forth in the hallway. "What do you know about him?" she snapped at him "He's one of the worst students in our year!"

Thor signed "He's not strong, but he's not judging you based on your past, or even trying to gain any boons from your family. He may not be the strongest, but he is pure of heart, and I think that is what you've always wanted."

Weiss didn't have a word to respond to this, as Thor walked into his room.

* * *

Ruby and Yang were both brought out of their thoughts when Thor entered the room. He didn't say a word, just got ready for bed and plopped down on his cot.

Neither thought now was a good time to press their agenda, he was apparently wiped and needed his rest. He'd be more compliant if he were well rested.

Just after that, Weiss came in, looking more somber than usual.

"Hey, Weiss." Ruby stated, "Something bothering you?"

"No," Weiss responded so quickly and curtly it caused Ruby to flinch.

Weiss however quickly saw what she'd done and responded again "I'm sorry Ruby, but no, nothing is bothering me, I've just got a lot on my mind, that's all, I need to get some sleep."

With that, she too changed for the night climbed into bed and quickly fell asleep.

"Just leaves Blake unaccounted for," Yang muttered in a slight laugh to herself. Blake was the one on their team most likely to go off on her own, without explanation. It was something Yang had grown to expect, but always in the back of her mind, she worried she'd do another disappearing act.

As she thought this, she wondered what her partner was up to.

* * *

Blake sat at the computer, trolling through all the data she'd managed to collect over the past few weeks. Thor, as it turned out, was a gifted student, but a thoroughly unwilling one. She had to twist his arm practically to get him on track, and when she did, keeping his attention on the subject was difficult.

She supposed the sheer volume of the work he had to make up had something to do with it, but she'd noticed when he was in standard classes he didn't ever bother to go above and beyond.

But once he got at something, he adapted and learned very quickly, much quicker than she had expected.

But all the data she'd been collecting on him, hadn't yielded any real leads. She had used the tutoring as an opportunity to study him, but she hadn't gleaned much from it. So she started to look into his past, and that was what was confusing her. He apparently didn't have one.

It was as if he didn't exist before he was "found" two years ago. No record of him or anyone like him that she could find. And nothing on someone who matched his description of his father, and premonition semblance should be marked somewhere in the history books.

But there was nothing. And that nothing told her something. The closest parallel she could think of was someone in witness protection, where a new life was fabricated for him.

That was the most logical thing she could think of. That or he and his family were living off the grid. That may be true as well she supposed. But he didn't give the vibe of someone who'd lived away from civilization for most of his life.

Okay, maybe a little, his table manners were terrible. But he was far to personable, outgoing and social for Blake to believably think he's lived on the outskirts of society his whole life. The record of him at the orphanage tell a similar story, he was quite social on arrival and was quick to make friends.

So if that didn't make sense that left a coverup of some sort. If that was the case, what was he hiding? If this was true, it was most likely he was hiding from someone dangerous. Which seemed odd, given how strong he was, and even at the time of his first appearance he was reportedly still quite strong, much like Ruby. That would mean a powerful enemy.

Or alternatively, someone he didn't want to see or have anything to do with. His father perhaps? His tone when he'd described him wasn't full of the love someone might expect for someone talking about their parents.

All she'd manage to do was bring up more questions about him. It was mind boggling for her that someone so open and extroverted could be hiding some sort of secret. She barely managed to do it, and she was extremely reserved.

But, she supposed there was something to say for hiding in plain sight, which is what she was trying to do now, pretty successfully she thought, only her own temper had let slip her secret.

* * *

Thor woke up suddenly and totally awake, and it took him a few moments to realize someone had woken him up.

"Heeeeyyyy Thor!" Ruby said into his ear, with a huge smile on her face.

Thor didn't like that smile, he could see the architect of his destruction in that smile, as sincere as it was, and something told him disaster would follow.

"Ruby, I'm not sure what you are planning, but please don't."

"Oh, I wasn't planning anything, I just wanted to finally spend some quality time with my unofficial big brother, is that so wrong?" she said giving him big puppy dog eyes.

That was her secret weapon, and she used it well. Few could resist Ruby when she gave them that look. Thor considered himself a fairly resilient person, but not in this case. He couldn't bring himself to resist. The worst part was he knew she knew what she was doing and it didn't make a difference.

Yawning, he responded, "Alright, alright, what did you want to do?"

Ruby grinned hugely and answered, "First I want a look at your hammer!"

"I've told you, Ruby, that" he started before she cut him off.

"You don't have to give me schematics or anything, I just want to know what no one other than you can lift it!" she blurted out.

Thor raised an eyebrow "How do you know that?"

Ruby's pupil shrunk at this, and it was evident she let something slip she hadn't meant to. The look on her face told him she knew she'd been caught at something.

"Umm, I might of, you know…broken into your locker to try and….examine it…." she said, looking at the ground, kicking at the carpet, clasping her hands to her chest.

Damn, it wasn't fair she could do that. Admit wrong doing and make him feel bad.

But no harm was done, and she was remorseful enough he supposed. Then there was the fact she just didn't seem to have a malicious bone in her body made him ready to forgive her.

"It's alright, I suppose, you came clean eventually. But I expect you not to ever do that again, right?"

Her face lighted "Yes, of course! But can you please tell me why the hammer is so heavy? Are you really that strong?!' She said starting to get excited again.

He supposed he could give her a bit of information on it. "No Ruby, it has nothing to do with strength." He said, his tone becoming grave and his thoughts and voice drifted off to get soft like he wasn't entirely present. "My hammer can only be wielded by one who is worthy…"

Ruby's eye lit up at this "Wow! Really!"

Thor realized his mistake the instant he made it. In his post waking stupor, he'd let his mind wander to his actual weapon, and let the fact of it leak out. He needed to fix this quick, luckily Ruby's innocent nature made her a bit more gullible than her peers.

He quickly put on a fake but no less convincing smile and started to laugh with his mouth closed, like he found something incredibly funny and was trying to keep it in.

"Aww, you teasing me aren't you!" Ruby shouted as she started to blush at falling for the 'joke.' "Come on tell me for real!"

"Alright, alright, I wasn't lying about the strength part. It's that the hammer has a safety feature in that keeps someone who isn't wearing my belt from lifting or moving it. That is also what allowed me to throw it and call it back." That was true, he'd designed it to do so, but wasn't sure how'd he'd known to do it.

"Wow…That's so cool!" she gushed. "So, that's why you always put the belt on first, you couldn't use your primary weapons if you didn't.

Thor nodded "Just keep that to yourself." He said winking.

"Okay, well, now that we've done that. Get ready!" she shouted, pulling his blankets off the bed.

"For what?"

"Like I said! Today you are going be spending quality time with your "little sister," so get ready, we're heading into the city!"

Thor groaned at this, he'd hoped to have a day just to relax. But there was no use in fighting it.

"Give me a few minutes."

* * *

As Thor shaved in the bathroom, he pondered what had gotten into Ruby. She was up to something he was sure of it. What it was, he wasn't at all certain about. He supposed she may be planning on weaseling some of the information about his gear out of him, but somthing told him that wasn't it. For one, that was the first thing she tried, and while Ruby was naive and innocent still in many ways, she was by no means stupid. If that was her goal, he was certain she'd come up with something much more clever than that.

Not, that was a Segway into something else, but she'd tripped herself up by revealing she'd broken into his locker. That had slowed her down, but she clearly wasn't deterred from her course.

But what could she be up to? Ruby by her nature was pretty honest, and she was genuinely kind. So he doubted anything malicious or even mischievous was afoot.

If he was going to guess, she was trying to help him in some way she thought he needed help or was going to ask him to help someone she cared about. That was the other thing about her, she was selfless to a near fault. She cared much more about others than herself, and if she was acting in any dishonest way, he imagined it was for noble reasons.

But what was it? Or more appropriately, who? Was it him? Or her sister? Weiss? Blake? One of the members of team JNPR?

As he rinsed his razor, he signed. He supposed Ruby's plan would reveal itself as the day went on.

Looking for his shave job in the mirror, or he guessed a trimming, given he still had his beard, he deemed it suitable.

Pulling on his cloths, he exited the Bath room to find Ruby waiting for him.

"Ready to go on our little "date"? "He said grinning from ear to ear.

Ruby turned red at this "Ewww, it's not a date, you're just spending time with your little sister remember. A date?! Ugh, that would be like…incest or something right?"

He just laughed at this, having gotten the rise out of her that he wanted, he didn't bother explaining why it wouldn't be incest.

"Come on then." He said gesturing for her to follow him. "The day awaits."

* * *

That day had been, far as Thor would say, enjoyable. Ruby's interests lay well within his own in many ways. She wanted to visit the Military Museum, something he enjoyed very much. When she wanted to eat, she wanted to find the place with the best-tasting food with huge serving sizes, picking a burger place he'd visited a few times himself while out on his own.

Thor was of the opinion of taking quantity over quality in most instances, except if the food was delicious, or terrible, then the rules went out the window.

But the day was wearing on, and Thor was certain that a few times Ruby had been about to ask him something or say something. She either losing her nerve or deciding the moment wasn't right.

They continued on their day, and it was fun, but it was starting to drag on. He wanted to get some time to relax because come Monday, he was going to be hitting the books hard again.

"So Thor." Ruby began, this time, her tone lighter than before, but seemed a bit forced. "I think my sister likes you."

She said it in a way that came off as trying to get something out of her before she couldn't do it. Both stopped as Thor looked her in the eye.

"Is that right?" Thor said, not buying into this line. Not that she thought she was making something up, but he wasn't entirely sure if Ruby was the type of person who could accurately judge this sort of situation.

"Yeah!" she shouted, starting to get excited. "I mean, you're just like her! You're big and strong, and you love to fight and beat people up! You love a good party!"

"Ahh, is that all?" he responded, trying not to let a laugh break out.

"Well….no….." She calmed down a bit at this. "When you're not around, she talks about you a lot."

That, he didn't know "Really? What does she have to say?"

"She's always wondering what I think of you if we get along."

"Is that all?" maybe she was onto something, but as it stood, it wasn't anything beyond a sister being protective.

"No, I mean, the way she talks about you, it's, well I can quantify it actually, but it's just something how she talks about you!"

"Okay, I believe you, Ruby." He said with a humoring smile.

"So are you going to ask her out?!" Ruby said excitedly.

"No, I don't think so." He said and started to stroll along.

"What! Why not! She strong and beautiful, and you two are so much alike!" Ruby said running after him.

"I'm just not interested, that's all." Which was true, after a fashion. Yang was desirable in many ways, but she was at times a bit too hot headed. Just like himself, but two hot heads together was not a good idea.

"What, so she's not good enough for you, is that it?!" Ruby said in a defensive tone.

"No, nothing like that." Better to stop her before she got a head of steam going. "It just wouldn't work, you said we are alike, and yes in a way that's true. But those traits in two people in a relationship, well that might not be the best combination." He said, looking into her confused face. "Let me explain. Say for example we are both hot headed. Well, if we got into an argument, it would undoubtedly escalate to the full on battle. Or, we both like to fight, well feeding that trait off of each other would almost certainly result in a good deal more full on fights in bars. Do you understand?"

"Yeah, I guess," Ruby mumbled, and he sort of got the feeling she both got it and didn't at the same time, but his message had been sent.

"Can I ask why you seem so melancholy over this?"

"I just….man this sounds stupid, but I kinda of thought if you and Yang started dating, you'd sort of become my unofficial older brother, officially, if that makes sense." She mumbled.

It didn't actually, not to Thor, but he got the sentiment loud and clear.

"Nonsense, you'll be my "little sister" no matter what." He said clapping her on the shoulder. Ruby, however, surprised him and latched herself onto him in a tight hug. But he got over him momentary confusing and returned it. "Come on, little sister, let's head back to school."

* * *

Ruby's mood seemed lighter than before but more subdued as the headed back to the Beacon. He supposed her disappointment was mixed a bit with her relief of getting what was on her mind out in the open.

As they approached the school, Thor spoke: "I'm going to head to the cafeteria, grab something to drink."

"Alright, I'll meet you back at the room okay?"

He nodded to show she understood and they parted ways.

* * *

Yang waited in her room for her sister to come back. She was so proud of her sister and worried at the same time.

She took steps to ask out the boy she liked, which was huge for her to do. But was still concerned about her baby sister, first date and all.

As she thought Ruby entered the room. She examined her face to see if there was joy or despair there, one or the other would probably follow this date depending on how it went.

But, there wasn't either. Instead, her face was pensive and deep in thought.

"Hey Ruby, how'd it go?" She said hesitantly.

"Huh, oh hey Yang, it went alright I guess, but can I talk to you for a minute?"

Yang jumped down "Sure thing." Thinking this wasn't good.

"Yang, I'm sorry but…." She hesitated.

"But what! Did he do something to you?!"

"No, it's just, I asked him about you, Yang I was trying to help, but, I'm sorry he told me he didn't like you that way."

Yang's head felt like it was spinning in confusion. What was she talking about?

"Ruby, what are you talking about?"

"I'm sorry Yang, I know it wasn't any of my business, but I asked him if he'd ever go on a date with you, but he told me you weren't his type." She said in a voice that dripped with shame.

"Why would you do that!" Yang practically yelled.

"I know, I shouldn't have butted in, but I was just trying to help!" Ruby said all wide eyed and apologetic.

Yang was still confused "But why would you try to get him to ask me out?" this didn't make sense to her.

"Well…" she began. Apparently, a bit lost in her own right. "Don't you like him?"

Yang raised her eyebrows "Don't you?"

"What! EWWW, NO, he's like a big brother to me. And I don't go for those super muscle bound types."

Well, Yang felt herself starting to feel the first signs of blood rushing to her face. That was the second time she misinterpreted Ruby's action towards this guy. Maybe she needed to start looking more closely at her actions.

"Don't you like him though? I mean, come on, he's like your dream guy!" Ruby blurted out.

Yang laughed "And how do you know what my dream guy is?" In truth, Yang didn't know that herself, not really, she didn't really consider dating at this time.

"He's super 'hot,' as you'd put it, he's super strong and confident. But he's really one of the nicest guys either you or me has ever meet. He loves to have fun, and he's a thrill seeker."

Yang found herself pondering Ruby's statement. She was more insightful than most people gave her credit for, and in this line of thought, she thought she may have a little bit of it correct. But overall, despite those admiral traits, she didn't think of Thor that way.

"Hey, but wait a minute." She said, "Why won't he go out with me! I'm one hell of a catch!" she said, a bit of her pride taking a blow at this revelation. She was used to most guys falling over themselves to ask her out, now this guy didn't want anything to do with her? What made him so special?

"He said something about you being too hot blooded or something," Ruby said as she tried to remember his exact words.

"What! I'll show him got blooded!" she said as her eye's turned red with his semblance flaring up.

"Yang calm down please!" Ruby shouted out "He said he was too and that if you two got together, it's something like causing too much trouble, or something, I don't remember."

She calmed down a bit at this, but still, she'd been amazed to think her little sister had tried to set her up on a date, not the other way around. That was progress in a way she thought, she hadn't gone a date herself, but she'd at least gone on a platonic trip with a friend.

* * *

Two Weeks Later

It was done, finally, for the semester, the last test was handed in. He'd know his academic fate in a couple days. The die was cast, and now he could only wait.

He thought he'd done well enough to keep himself afloat, but he wouldn't know for sure. But tonight, he needed to unwind, and he needed a drink. He hadn't gotten a proper drink in years and frankly hadn't felt the urge. But after the hell he'd put himself through, he felt like he deserved one.

There was club he'd heard Yang mentioned, he'd get a drink there tonight. Cut loose, and have some fun that he'd been putting off.

* * *

He sat at the bar and drank his beer, the beer was good, and the music was not. He hated this type of music, there was no melody to it, it was just noise and beat. He enjoyed the party scene, but his taste in music didn't always match the music played in clubs.

Taking another swig of his beer, he heard a familiar voice in his right ear.

"Hey, big guy! What are you doing here?"

Turning, he saw Yang taking the seat next to him at the bar.

He raised his bottle "Getting a beer, you?"

"Getting a drink too." She said as the bartender brought her one without her even asking.

"You a regular here?"

"Yup, they know me and my drink." Taking a sip from her glass. "Unwinding from the semester I take it?"

He took a swig from his beer before responding "Indeed,"

* * *

Had he been the way he was when she'd first meet him, she might have tried to tease him and get him to dance with her. But Yang could see he was spent mentally, and he probably wouldn't appreciate the attitude right now. She took another sip of her drink. "Next semester will be better, providing you don't disappear for more than a month hunting down someone who pissed you off." She said with a smile.

Thor just shrugged at this, and Yang took that as an acknowledgment that he agreed. Throwing the last of his beer back, he stood up.

"Where are you going?"

"Back."

"Oh man, a girl could take that personally you know." She said in mock hurt. She didn't think that he was leaving because of her at all. He didn't want to party right now, not like how she did. Shame, she'd heard he could get real rowdy when he wanted to.

It was then it dawned on her that Ruby had caught onto one thing. They really did have something in common, only just not as many as she may have thought. It also dawned on her that despite being her roommate for the first semester of the year, she really didn't know all that much about him. Ruby was the one who actually hung out with him to any real degree. She, Weiss and Blake only interacted with him to any real degree in their shared room. Sure they talked and even hung out a little outside, and Blake had even tutored him, but it seemed weird to her that none of them had yet to actually develop a report with him, despite the close living quarters.

She thought it might be the dream's they all had earlier in the semester. It had badly spooked Blake and Weiss, and Yang had to admit to herself she was still nervous about it. Only Ruby, with her children like belief in heroes and the power of good, managed to shake the jitters that had affected the rest of her team. Hell, Thor was the one who lit a fire under them to get stronger and had offered advice to help them improve. Granted, he had to scare the living daylights out of them this life like visions, but he'd done it.

Despite all this, it seems paradoxical that Thor wasn't close to the rest of the team. They were all much closer to Team JNPR than him, and Thor was sort of an unofficial member of the team.

He seemed so out going, but he was guarding something, she was sure of it. The only thing she had any idea it might have been was something with his father. His story, well, it felt like he was telling the truth or most of it, or at least what he thought it was. But he seemed, she didn't know how to describe it other than it felt mostly right, but something marred it, making it seem deceptive. She wanted to look into it, but she didn't want to butt into his private past if she didn't have to.

Taking another sip of her drink, Yang suddenly didn't feel like partying anymore. Maybe Thor had the right idea to head, back.

* * *

"This can't be true, how can he have no past before the orphanage!" Weiss hissed to herself. She'd been using her connection, or more appropriately her father's and sisters, to try and find out more about the boy sleeping in her dorm. And they all had turned up nothing before he was found and sent to the orphanage. It was like someone had conjured him from smoke, he was a phantom.

But here he was, in her school. Learning, barely, fighting and even teaching her things. Someone like that couldn't just come out of nowhere, but that was all she could conclude, with all the data she had. But that couldn't be right, he had to come from somewhere.

Perhaps if she tried to find his father first? What was his name? "He never told us" She whispered to herself and decided to try and locate the man with the visions with what information she had.

* * *

Ozpin stood over an old crater, a scene he'd visited only a handful of time over the past two years, and never staying long. The Grimm activity was for reasons unknown to him, extremely high in this area that seemed devoid of human life.

But something had changed, for what ever reason, the Grimm has suddenly moved out of the area. He didn't like that in and of itself, but it finally provided an opportunity to examine the area.

It was mostly overgrown now, and that was something of a mystery on its own. The plant growth in the crater seemed more in like with wildland reclamation of ten or fifteen years, rather than two.

Walking into the crater, to where he believed the boy had been, he began examining the ground. He didn't see anything, although that wasn't much of a surprise, given the plant growth. But he could feel something, almost like there was a person near by.

Ozpin honed in on that sensation, and it seemed to be at the center of the crater, but there was nothing there.

Kneeling down, he examined the ground and put his hand down. And he could swear that there was some sort of living being here. One that was profoundly lonely, and in a great deal of distress.

Standing up, he decided to leave. There was nothing he could find here right now, he'd need to bring some sort of equipment next time. He hadn't really expected to find what he was looking for on this journey, especially given he didn't even know what that was at the moment. But he wanted to have a look around now regardless, in case the Grimm decided to return.

Taking up his cane, he headed back to the school, thinking of what he'd do next to uncover the secrets hidden here.

* * *

A/N: Okay, please review and tell me what you think. I need feedback to continue. I'm not going to say if I don't get reviews I won't update, I hate it when authors do that, but I want to know if I'm doing a satisfactory job or not. What can I improve on? Please tell me.


	4. Fact Finding

**A/N: Okay here's the next chapter.**

 **Not sure if anyone is even reading this at this point, but I'm considering taking this story down and cutting it into smaller pieces.**

 **Note: This is the last of orgianl chapters before I re-cut the first, after this, if you've been reading, it will be new content.**

Tell me what you think in the reviews of that idea. Should I keep going along this path or make smaller chapters?

* * *

Chapter 3

* * *

Jaune didn't know what had hit him. After the food fight had concluded, he heard someone new shout "Food fight!", And that was the last thing he remembered before waking up on the floor.

* * *

The scene would have been utterly hilarious if one of her friends hadn't just been thrown across the cafeteria like a rocket. Concerned for Jaune, Ruby ran up to him to make sure he was still breathing.

And he seemed to be unharmed for the most part but covered entirely in the pulverized melon. The one that had hit him like a cannonball.

"Thor!" Weiss shouted from somewhere behind her "The food fight it over! You missed it!"

* * *

"Ahh, I always miss the fun stuff," Thor muttered as he walked over to the stunned Jaune and pulled him to his feet. He'd heard the commotion from the other students, and gathered what was happening while he ran to the cafeteria. He's arrived in such a mood to fight, he launched a watermelon at the first target he saw, which happened to be Jaune, who was just now regaining his breath. "Sorry about that." He added.

Despite the description of the student, and from what he could hear while he approached, the area seemed remarkably in tact. "The work of Goodwitch no doubt." He thought to himself as he looked around. And speaking of the devil.

"Mr. Odinson, good, I was going to be looking for you, but you've saved me the trouble."

He groaned at that, he hated the "teacher talks" as he and a few other frequent attendants to the officer called them from time to time. There were other names as well, but not ones he'd used in polite company.

Ruby called to him as he followed Goodwitch "Thor come find us when you're done, we have plans for today, and I want you there!"

Thor waved a hand over his shoulder, showing he had heard her.

* * *

Thor hated sitting in an office waiting for a teacher. It always made him feel like he'd done something wrong, even if he hadn't. Although, he had to remind himself that by the school's rules, he usually had. But the semester hadn't even started officially yet.

Thor was broken from his thoughts as Ozpin entered the room and sat behind his desk.

"Good afternoon Mr. Odinson, how are you doing today?" he asked in a tone that reminded him of an office receptionist.

"I am fine, but I would like to know why I am here," Thor responded, hoping to cut through the official formalities.

Ozpin sighed at this "Very well, Mr. Odinson I'll get right to the chase." He took a sip of his coffee as he spoke. "You know of the tournament we will be hosting this year?"

"Of course, I've been looking forward to it since the start of the school year."

"Well." Ozpin seemed to hesitate at this moment "I'm afraid you won't be allowed to participate." He sipped his coffee as to put emphasis on the point.

Neither spoke for what seemed like hours to Thor, but couldn't have been more than a minute or two.

"Why?" was all he could say in response. He had been working on controlling his temper, but this was pushing it. Why wouldn't he be allowed to fight? This was his best chance to get some real competition.

Ozpin sipped his Coffee again before he responded. Thor was starting to find the sipping noise annoying in fact. It was like he did it every time he didn't want to talk.

"You don't have a team or even a partner. The first two stages of the tournament require both."

"What are you talking about?" Thor said, trying to restrain his tone.

Ozpin raised an eyebrow at this question "Have you not read up on the the tournament?"

"Why would I? I know what a tournament is!" his tone getting louder and angrier.

"The Vytal tournament isn't a standard tournament." Ozpin began " The first round is a team battle, four on four." He said before taking another sip of his coffee, causing Thor's irritation level to rise. "After that is the double round, where the winning teams from the previous round pick two to represent them in the next match, it is only after this that a one on one match would occur."

"But…couldn't I just compete in the final matches?"

"And get a two round bye? I can't do that, the perceived favoritism that would be too damaging, what's more, it isn't fair to let you just compete in the final round of competition."

Thor was seething in his chair. How could this be allowed? He was a student, he deserved the right to fight.

* * *

Ozpin had expected the boy to be upset, but there was no helping it. He had no team or partner, he couldn't compete. But more importantly, at least to Ozpin, it wouldn't be fair. Thor was so far ahead of his peers in combat that he doubted any student competing would have a chance.

He couldn't afford the scrutiny such a loop sided contest would draw. People would be curious as to how the boy could do such things, and why his skill set was so far beyond his peers. Frankly, Ozpin himself pondered these questions regularly, and he thought answers lay at the crater where the boy was first located.

Sadly, the crater was lost for now. The Grimm, which had vacated the area had since returned much stronger than before. It wasn't that he couldn't handle the Grimm, it was that new ones regularly entered the area, meaning any sort of study would be near impossible.

If he brought a team of hunters to clear and hold the area, he might have been able to do it. But the secrecy wouldn't hold up. Any Hunters he set to the task would sooner or later start to ask questions.

Then there was the fact he had reason to believe that his presence at the site might or caused Her to send them back.

But that was a line of thought for later, right now he had a furious and very powerful young man sitting in front of him. He'd have to appease him in some way, give him some sort of alternative. "Mr. Odinson, you and I both know that you are far ahead of your peers. I'd dare say your current skill set in beyond most fourth year students. The Tournament would most likely not offer you any real challenge." He sipped his coffee again, this time noticing as he did Thor's jaw clenched. "I've got something else in mind for you."

That seemed to at least distract him, if not out right calm him down.

* * *

"Is that so?" Thor responded in a measured tone, or at least an attempt at one.

Ozpin pin nodded and raised his cup to take another sip, but after looking Thor in the eye, he put it down instead. "There is a task that I need to be done during the Tournament, one that promises to be more challenging than the competition."

Thor didn't know whether to believe him or not. He may just be trying to pacify him, but he'd see where this line of conversation went. "Really? What?"

"I can't tell you at the moment, secrecy requires you not know until the date draws near."

Rather than calm him down, this response only made him more suspicious that this was just a ruse to keep him quiet. "How do I know you're not lying?"

"You don't," Ozpin said candidly. "But you frankly don't have any other recourse, you will not be allowed to enter the tournament, and if you cause trouble over the issue, you'll be expelled as I have warned you before."

That, as much as he hated to admit it was true. He couldn't beat this problem into the ground like he wanted to. He'd just have to trust Ozpin. His issue with this was he didn't think the man was altogether trustworthy. He felt was was a benevolent man, but not entirely honest.

But, what choice did he have? "Very well, if that is all, may I go now?"

"Yes, you may go, enjoy the rest of your last day off." He said as Thor made his way to the door, waving him off.

After he left, Ozpin picked up his coffee and took another sip.

* * *

Thor's mood was soured over this news, and he didn't feel like going to find team RWBY like he'd promised he would. He didn't want his mood to ruin their last day of break, and he felt like wasn't going to shake this dour mood anytime soon.

He didn't have a plan for what to do now, he supposed he could work on his gear, he'd been neglecting to make any of the modification his teachers had been telling him to for too long.

While they were all impressed with his hammer, vest, and belt, they all had the same concerns. They all worried it was too dangerous for him to use safely. They kept citing concerns of the power stabilizers in the vest and the primary source of energy being located in the hammer head, which was thrown and used as a melee weapon.

The dust in the vest and belt was also something they were concerned with, all the different types weren't as safely isolated as they should have been, at least in their opinion. They told him if they were damaged he ran the risk of unintentional dust mixing or detonation.

He wasn't worried about that, not really. But it was something he could do to burn up some time.

Deciding to tweak his gear a bit, he started to head to his locker but was met with an unexpected face.

* * *

"Oh, hey Thor! How've you been." Velvet asked.

"I've been fine, how have you been?"

She smiled shyly, "Alright, the bullying has stopped, thanks to you."

"Ah, well you are welcome." He said forcing a smile.

"I was wondering, well…" she began before trailing off.

"Yes?"

"It's just, you remember the deal you made with me?"

It took Thor a few seconds to remember their date, and he felt like an ass for letting it slip his mind. "Of course I remember, and I'll be sure to find you a date for the dance, you have my word."

She smiled at this. "But if you don't, you promised…."

"Yes I did, and I will if it comes to that, but I assure you it won't." he smiled at her. "But at the moment, I'm busy and can't chat. We'll talk later, alright?"

She wasn't too thrilled, he could tell by the look on her face, but he could tell she also understood. "Sure thing, see you later." And with that, she continued on her way.

Thoughts of his gear forgotten, he needed to keep his promise to Velvet. He couldn't believe he'd forgotten it. Well, no, he could believe it is given how the latter part of the last semester had gone, but he still didn't like it.

He was sure finding someone to go with Velvet wouldn't be hard, she was beautiful and one of the most genuinely nice students in the school. It was odd that she was one of the shyest students in the school was also one of the most sought after, but her good looks made her, oddly enough, intimidating to most boys who were attracted to her. The fact she had a very protective team, and they were one of the best teams in the school, didn't help. They often intimidated potential suitors, whether it was on purpose or not, he had no way of knowing.

He needed to find her a date. It wasn't as if he would hate going with her, but he'd already told her they wouldn't have worked out, and he didn't want to lead her on or give her false hope.

* * *

"Okay, I think it's safe to say Thor isn't going to show up Weiss, what did you want to talk about?" Yang said as they sat in their room after Thor was more than an hour past the point he should of meet with them. Weiss mentioned wanting to discuss something but had been adamant that Thor was not present, which only made Yang suspect it was about him.

"Alright fine, it's about Thor." She began.

'Yup' was all Yang thought.

"I've been trying to find out more about him and his past. I've been using my contacts, my sister's and even my fathers, and none of them can prove his existence before two years ago."

"Hold up, you've been digging into his past?" Yang said in a somewhat irritated tone "don't you consider that a bit of a breach of privacy."

Weiss waved her hand dismissively "I have a right to know if the man who is sleeping in my room is potentially dangerous." She went wide eyed after she said this, and looked at Yang, who faces was covered in a huge grin, just waiting to take what she said out of context. "Not a word!"

Before Yang could say anything, Blake spoke up. "I've also been looking into his past, and Weiss is right, he just seemed to appear two years ago."

"Blake you too?!" Ruby whined, "I thought you of all people would respect the need for privacy and the need to keep secrets."

That comment did make Blake feel slightly ashamed, but she was just so damn curious about him she couldn't help herself.

"I didn't find anything on him Ruby, but." She said, reaching into her bag and pulling a book out "I did find this."

They all looked, it was an old book an ancient book really. They could even smell how old it was.

"What's that?" Ruby asked, apparently wanting to touch it, but not daring to out of fear of damaging it.

"I found it at the Vale library, it was in their vaults, gathering dust."

"You didn't…steal it did you?" Ruby asked hesitantly.

"Of course not! I checked it out!" Blake said defensively, forgetting to tell them that she hadn't told anyone she was checking it out and had done so in the middle of the night when the library was closed. "I was asking people I knew about Thor and everything thing he'd told us, and no one had ever heard of him. But a bookstore owner I know mentioned he thought he might have read something that sounded like that in an old book, this book." She gestured to it again.

"But Thor is our age, why would a book that is older than the city have anything on him." Yang said looking at the book puzzled.

"Probably about his homeland, naming convention as the like and I right?" Weiss butted in.

Blake shrugged "Sort of, here's what I found." She opened the book to a page somewhere near the beginning and laid it down.

In front of them was a picture an ancient piece of art work of a tall blonde man, holding a mallet over his head, with lightning radiating from it. While it didn't look photorealistic, it was hard to ignore the comparisons.

"Is that….Thor?" Ruby asked hesitantly, apparently afraid of sounding like an idiot.

"You dolt, how could it be Thor?" Weiss cut in.

"Well, she's right in a way, look at the captions.

The other three members read the caption " _Thor: The God of Thunder calling the storms with his magic hammer Mjolnir."_

"God of thunder?" Yang asked befuddled.

"Yes, I've read this book thoroughly, and it's about a group of people called the Vikings, and Thor was one of their gods. He was the god of thunder and lightning, storm, fertility, war, marriage and …. Oak trees." She said in a tone that clearly voiced her confusion at the last one. "He was the son of Odin, king of the gods, and he was supposedly all-knowing and could see into the future."

All four sat quietly for a long while. Each thinking their own thoughts.

Ruby wondered if maybe, just maybe, Thor was the real deal god of thunder reborn in human form.

Weiss thought that he had taken on this name and persona to hide something, but now she was certain he was descended from these Vikings.

Blake, having already read this information, was wondering what her friends were thinking.

Yang was concerned that Thor may be unhinged, taking on the name of a god. She also wondered what his real name was now because it wasn't likely he was given that name at birth.

"Soooo….he's not crazy….is he?" Yang started.

"I doubt it." Weiss answered, "He's not claiming to be a god or anything like that." She paused "Although the way he acts you could believe he thought he was one. No, I'm betting he's descended from the group of people who this book is about, and when he was found, he built this story around it to hide who he is."

"But why?"Ruby interjected.

"Well, his semblance fits with this gods attributes, and his father, if we believe him, had aspects of the Odin. So he just drew inspiration from that. We didn't find any of this out until we came across this old book, he probably thought no one would get wise to his façade. He even based his equipment off this story."

That made the most sense, but what did he have to hide? And would they confront him with this?

* * *

Jaune hadn't been expecting Thor to find him and pluck him out his room, especially after the watermelon incident, and when it did happen, he practically shrieked like a little girl.

"Mr. Arc, I wish a word word with you." He said as he carried him like a sack of potatoes into the hall. "Do you have a date for the dance?" he asked briskly.

Jaune went wide eyed at this "Thor, I'm flattered but…" he was silenced by a quick smack to the shoulder. Granted it only looked like a tap, but it still hurt like someone had hauled off and punched him.

"Not for me you fool."

"Oh, well no, Weiss still won't go with me." He said in a somber tone.

"Well, maybe it's time you should stop for the time being."

"But…"

"I'm not saying you should give up completely, but she isn't into you right now." He said in a soft tone.

"But I…."

Thor didn't want to do this, not really. But Jaune wasn't going making any head way with Weiss, despite his word with her, she was kind of hard headed, and wasn't yet willing to see this boy for who he was. She was still clouded in her old life to actually start seeing others for who they were. Well not withstanding those she spent significant amounts of time with, and even then she took a long time to let her guard down.

He didn't think Velvet and Jaune would hit it off and marry each other or anything like that. But it would be good for both of them to see other people, get out of their shells, and see that other's would be willing to spend time with them.

"I know a girl, who will go to the dance with you." He said, bluntly, but quietly so as not to draw attention to them.

"Really!? Who?" he sounded almost excited.

"I'll have her meet you in front of the main entrance tonight at eight, how that sound?"

"What? Can't you just tell me?" His voice almost whined.

Thor didn't respond, he just smiled and left Jaune alone in the hall.

* * *

That Night

Thor watched Jaune from the roof of the school as the boy paced in front of the main school entrance. Velvet would be along shortly, and then he'd have this issue dealt with. Both needed to be more confident, and this may help them a bit in that. Jaune needed to see beyond his tunnel visions for Weiss, which while he felt for the boy, was making him oblivious to other's, his partners being chief. Velvet needed to know that she was perfectly fine the way she was, she just needed confidence in herself.

Pyrrha, she needed a kick in the pants too. She was pinning for Jaune but refused to tell him. Whether or not he liked her that way, it should come out, and see Jaune get a date might just light a fire under her.

He sincerely doubted this date would result in anything other than a nice night for both, but he needed to get this out of the way. He's totally forgotten his promise to Velvet, and now he was scrambling to make it right. He could have just blown her off, but that wasn't in his nature. But he wanted this business behind him, he wasn't a matchmaker, and now found himself irritated with the fact he walked himself into this situation.

Velvet approached Jaune and while he couldn't hear them, the body language and facial expressions seemed to be all good signs. They even laughed, they spoke for a few minutes before they went their separate ways.

Now, it was time to see if his little plan had worked.

* * *

Jaune nearly jumped out of his skin when someone from behind him asked him "How'd it go?"

Turning he saw Thor standing behind him. How was it a guy that size could move so quietly? Granted he'd been lost in his own thoughts, but still, the guy was bigger than Cardin but moved like Blake or Ren.

"Well?" Thor said making a gesture with his hand as if telling Jaune to get on with it.

"She said she'd go with me, can you believe it?!" his tone was excited but confused. "Why though? She's a second year and one of the best-looking girls in the school, why would she go with me?"

Thor clapped Jaune on the shoulder "You not as pathetic as you think you are, you have good things about you as well, that a perceptive girl will see, and I suspect Velvet see's some of them."

"Thor, man, I don't know how you did it, but thanks!" He said as he grabbed and shook his hand. "I can't tell you how good it feels for someone other than my team wanting to even associate with."

That made Thor's mood sour. Was this boy really so isolated from the rest of the school? Or did he just feel like the rest of the school didn't want anything to do with him?

"Well, I got to get to bed, school starts again tomorrow!" Jaune said as he walked back to his dorm.

Thor stood there for a moment, feeling oddly melancholy.

After a few minutes, he decided he better head off to bed as well, he wanted to start the next semester well, given what a boondoggle the last one had been for him academically.

As he entered the room, he shared with Team RWBY, the atmosphere felt oddly thick. Looking around the room to each of the girls, he noticed them all trying act normal, but that was it, they were making a noticeable effort.

Blake was "reading" a book, but he eyes weren't moving. Ruby was working on Crescent Rose but trying to loosen a screw by tightening it. Weiss had a pen out over a piece of paper but wasn't writing anything. Yang in her bed, like Blake pretending to read, but her Magazine was upside down.

Thor felt like he'd just walked into a room where they had been talking about him just moments before. But he was mentally wiped and decided to leave the issue to some other time.

Changing and climbing into his cot, he only lay there for a few minutes before nodding off.

* * *

Ruby watched Thor as he climbed into his bed and fell asleep. They had been talking about what they had found in the book a few minutes before he arrived. If it hadn't been for Jaune's loud and apparently joyous return to his own room, Blake might not have looked out to investigate and hear Thor coming.

Ruby had wanted to ask him where he was, why he'd never bothered to meet up with them like he said he would. But that book still haunted her mind. There were too many similarities between the Viking God and her friend for it to be coincident. That left either he had adopted the persona to hide, he actually thought that was who he was.

Ruby hated both those, either he was crazy or a liar. The thing was he didn't seem like either to her, did that mean she just couldn't tell?

Or maybe she was over thinking this. It could be he had to change his name to hide from someone, start a new identity. That made sense, especially with his lack of history before two years ago.

As she climbed into bed, she continued to think about Thor, and who he really was.

* * *

Weiss lay in her bed, thinking of how she'd been deceived by the man sleeping a few feet away from her. He was now, very clearly, hiding some sort of sorted past. Why else would he take up the name of life aspects of some ancient god? Granted, one that he probably thought no one outside of his culture would be aware of, but still.

You didn't change your name and life because you just felt like it. Something happened to make him do, she was sure.

But, perhaps she was too harsh. "As Usual," she thought to herself in an internal tone that was very critical. Something had to happen to make him do it, and it was far from likely to be good.

She'd pry into this, and somehow, unlock his secrets.

* * *

Blake only found her curiosity about this man growing. The more she found out, even if that was in truth very little, the more questiones she had.

Like this Thor of legends, it was true the Thor she knew had a weather control semblance, but the legend seemed so in line with the man she now knew. Not just appearance and power, but the tales of him told of a personality remarkable similar to the Thor she knew.

Was that act, a coincidence….more? She had no clue, but now she had a bit of lead. If he was part of the Viking group of people, she could direct her information search to area's where they may still have descendants. Granted it was likely outside of the Kingdoms, but it was at least something to go on.

* * *

Yang hated this development about Thor. She had kind of thought they were getting to know the guy, but this just made them all realize that they didn't know him at all. She knew every one of her teammate's stories, even Blakes, who was easily the most guarded of them all.

But Thor was a mystery beyond what few pieces of information they could get out of him. Even the story about his father may not even be real, not completely anyway.

What was irritating her the most was she wanted to trust him. He had a charisma about him that just made him likable, and you wanted to believe him.

Huffing to herself, she pulled the covers over herself and decided to go to sleep and think about this more in the morning.

* * *

That night, again, the visions came.

Ruby dreamed of the Serpent again, only now it had grown wings and crushed a giant castle under it weights, and turned the surrounding land into a wasteland of ash. She couldn't breathe the air, it was too full of smoke and ash, and she crumpled to the ground.

Weiss dreamed again of the Garden, only now it was a frozen waste, nothing moving or growing. The cold felt like knives on her skin, and she was certain she'd soon succumb to the cold.

Blake, this time dreamed of an ocean, and she was being carried by the wind over the sea. Looking down, she saw creatures of the sea swimming just below the surface as if waiting for her to lose the wind that carried her over them to fail and let her drop.

Yang dreamt of the fire giant again, only now she was on the ground before it, unable to move. A feeble wind tried to douse the giant's fire, but it only irritated the beast. She watched helplessly, broken on the ground as it advanced on her.

Thor felt the same sensations of pain as the last time, only now he could only see the sky as he fell to the earth. Until him hit the earth, and woke up in his cot.

* * *

All five woke up at the same time. Ruby fell out of her bed, gasping for air, Weiss remained still in her bed, wrapping her blankets tight around herself. Blake lept out of bed, as if afraid of falling into some unknown danger. Yang woke up gripping her arm but retaining control of herself this time.

Thor was the only one who didn't react visibly. He instead went to Ruby and picked her up and told her to breathe." Just breathe, it's all gone, just breathe."

The younger girl started to calm down, and breathe more evenly.

"Thor!" Weiss near shouted, "What is happening to us?!" She clearly meant for it to come off a strong and accusing, but it didn't. It was far too scared to do so. "This was worse than last time, It felt so much more…more…" she said at a loss for words.

"Real." Thor finished for her "That means that if the dreams were similar to your last… That what they foretold is closer than before."

"Thor…," Ruby said in a meek voice. "I'm scared…."

Thor looked into her silver eye's, and as much as he wanted to put on the bravado he did last time to comfort her, he couldn't. He was too severely shaken himself.

"I know, little sister, but I'm here to protect you." He said hugging her to his chest "As long I'm here, I won't let anything hurt any of you."

* * *

Yang couldn't help but be touched by Thor's words and jealous at the same time. She was Ruby's big Sister, she should have been the one to comfort her, reassure her. Granted it was just a fact of the opportunity given Thor was the one she was talking to, but it was still enough to cause her discomfort.

Especially when Ruby hugged Thor back after his statement. But it touched her nor the less, seeing a bit into the soft spot Thor had that not many people saw.

"What is going on!" Yang hissed, trying to keep her voice low as possible.

Thor was still holding Ruby close, looked to her, and for the first time since she had known him, he looked scared.

"I don't know, something bad is coming, but I can't tell you what." She said quietly as he slowing rocked in place with Ruby, trying to soothe the shaking girl.

That unnerved Yang more than anything, Thor has always seemed unshakable, but the look of fear in his eyes had sold her on the need for preparation.

"Thor, you need to start training us again, we need to get ready for what ever the hell is coming."

* * *

The next day of classes was hardly what would be considered taxing, the teachers all took it easy on the students, relatively, to not overwhelm them after a break period.

But Team RWBY was unusually somber. Most of the other students would later remark that they seemed as if someone had died. But no one inquired to the mood at the time, even the members of team JNPR. The general consensus among the other students was it was some internal fight, and that it was best left alone.

Little did they know what was actually causing the problem.

* * *

"NO!" Thor yelled at her. "You must seize the initiative as soon as it presents itself, letting your opponent a single moment to regain themselves can be a fatal mistake."

Blake was feeling worn down, after a full day of classes than Thor's training, she felt depleted. Her biggest issue was what he wanted to teach her was so counter to her own fighting style that of all her team she was having the most trouble.

She wasn't sure that this was going to work for her. Yang, Ruby, and Weiss could adapt to this type of training easier than her, but she had spent her whole life developing a fighting style based around evasion and deception. Thor was all about pressuring an opponent and seizing openings. Blake would use such opportunities to escape to live to fight another day.

He wanted her to capitalize on opportunities to finish her opponents, and that was just not how she fought. But at the same time, she could see his point. End a threat before it could grow or come back to hurt them later.

She hated it.

But she knew he had a point, at least as far as giving her more options in fights. She wouldn't always be able to escape from her enemy, and she should learn to win a direct fight.

* * *

Yang wanted more from Thor. She didn't know what, but she felt he had more to offer her….and her team. He was hyper critical of their weaknesses and gave many helpful tips on how to improve on their weaknesses.

Even since last semester, Weiss's stamina had improved dramatically, and Ruby could now handle herself without a weapon.

But she and Blake were having issues' adapting to his training. Blake was not as direct a fighter as what Thor wanted, and Yang knew she had her own short comings. For starters, she knew she was still susceptible to her temper in a fight. Another thing she knew Thor pointed out to her was she was weak to opponents who either kicked or used a weapon with some reach.

Blake still using evasion as a primary tactic, which Thor didn't mind, but he was still critical of her ability to do significant harm to a larger stronger opponent, even with her weapon upgrades, she still favored much lighter gear.

"Why is it such a big deal!" Blake finally called out in frustration as Thor once again rejected her weapon improvements. This time, her ribbon had been modified to transmit dust, allowing her to entangle her targets, then hit them with dust.

Yang Thought that was pretty good, she'd shown her on a test dummy with lightning dust, and she fried it.

But Thor still wasn't impressed. "You keep trying to improve the weapon you have." He said in a much sterner tone than what she expected from him. "Why not instead make something else."

"I've used Gambol Shroud for years, I'm not giving it up!"

"I didn't say that." He stated in a calmer tone. "But you could build something to supplement your gear, like this." He pounded his vest in emphasis.

Blakes face softened, and Yang could see the hears working on her head, as the new notion swirled around in her head.

Yang looked from Thor to Blake, and she couldn't help but think of the tone shift between Thor and the rest of team RWBY. He was far more severe than he was before the second dream, he fun loving attitude was kept up in front of others, but in these training sessions, he was dead serious.

And she didn't like it. Either this was his true self, and he'd been lying to them, or he really was spooked by the dreams. Neither was good on her mind, and if she was frank, she missed his old way of carrying himself.

But, he was making them stronger, and visions aside, this would carry them far in the tournament, and in life. So even if she didn't like it, at least some good would come of it.

* * *

Thor watched them pride, as critical as he was of them, they were improving by leaps and bounds. Ruby especially had a raw talent not seen in the other three, but given her early placement, he supposed that was to be expected.

Blake was indeed making some inventive modification to her gear, but he wanted her to push it as far as she could.

But the one lagging behind was oddly the best fighter in the group at this point. Yang was making the slowest progress of the four. Her natural hot temper and hard headed nature made it more difficult for her to adapt. She was getting better but compared to the other's she was, at least to him, noticeably the slowest learner in this field.

"Okay, that's enough for today!" he called out to Weiss and Ruby who were sparring at this time. Ruby had been forbidden to use her weapon, just her semblance and hands, and feet. Weiss was weight a weighted vest, boots and arms bands and make all her movements cost more energy.

"Oh thank God," Weiss muttered as she started to strip the training gear off. Ruby's evasive actions have forced her to move more than she wanted to in the weighted clothing, and she felt the burn.

* * *

Thor ate alone in the cafeteria, his usual appetite was gone. He hadn't had it for some time after the second vision. What ever it was, it was much closer now.

He couldn't help but think of Ragnarok. The end that hung over his people. This shouldn't be like that all, but the sense of impending doom hanging over his head was not a feeling he wanted to entertain.

While other students went about their lives, getting ready for the dance in a few weeks, doing homework and training for the tournament, he found himself brooding. The fact was he was enjoying being a teenager again, a respite from the warrior's life, which he did enjoy, but when the biggest worry you had was passing a test or getting a date, that was a refreshing change.

But that was gone, something big was coming, and he was pathetically weak. Taking a drink of water, he wondered what he was going to do.

* * *

"This guy is unhinged!" Weiss complained as they went into the showers. "I've had some of the best tutors in the world, and none pushed me as hard as him."

"He's just making us better Weiss, it's for the best!" Ruby defended Thor to her partner.

"You're letting your hero worship of him really soften your opinion of him, Ruby!" Weiss snapped at her as she got into her shower stall.

"I don't worship him!" Ruby defended from her stall.

"Oh please, the way you look at him, admire his gear, if I didn't know better, I'd say you thought he really was the god of thunder!"

"Alright stop it, both of you," Blake called over her shoulder to them. "We're tired and need to get something to eat and then to bed."

"That's another thing." Yang butted in "He's pushing us so hard that we don't have any time to do anything else."

"If he's right, and I think he is, we need all the improvement we can get," Ruby stated.

"I get that, but we need time to recharge, not just physically, but mentally." Yang continued "We'll burn out at this rate, and if that happens, nothing good will come of it. I'm not saying we stop, but just slow down a bit."

No one responded after this, they just thought about what Yang said.

They all knew she was right, and even Thor knew it. He'd told Ruby as much when he first started training them. Hell anyone who did any sort of physically strenuous activity knew it, you had to rest and recover.

But this drove home something they hadn't really thought of until that point. Thor was scared, and he didn't scare easily. The day of initiation he'd taken on one of the largest Grimm any of them had ever encountered, by himself, and won. What was more, he enjoyed it, like it was a game to him.

For him to of been so badly spooked, it has to be something he thought was bad.

* * *

Jaune didn't know what was bothering team RWBY or Thor, but he intended to leave in alone for a bit. He was concerned, but he didn't want to be a busybody and but into what he felt was a private issue among them.

But he couldn't help but wonder what was causing it. He'd initially inquired with Ruby as to what was bothering them, but she said it was nothing. He wanted to press the issue, but Ren and Pryyha advised against, at least for the time being.

Still, he worried about them, and Thor to he supposed. The guy helped him out in a big way with the Dance, so he felt like he owed him something, even if Thor didn't.

But the situation was, for now, not his business, and he'd leave them to it.

* * *

Thor felt a buzzing in his pocket, and it took him a moment to realize what it was. He's set his scroll to vibrate so it wouldn't disturb him in class and had forgotten to turn the volume back on.

Pulling it out, he saw a message from Ruby.

"We need to talk, meet us in the library." No further explanation was given.

The "us" must have meant the rest of Team RWBY.

Standing up, he made his way to the library, hoping that this wasn't going to be a big deal.

* * *

Thor couldn't help but be hit with Deja Vu over the first night of dreams. They all looked at him, not as seriously as they had the night of the dreams, but they still look anxious.

"Thor can you sit down please," Weiss said in a polite tone that sounded manufactured to keep her audience calm. He supposed she had a lot of experience with this.

But he complied none the less. "What did you need to talk to me about?"

The four girls exchanged glances before Ruby spoke up. "It's the training regimen you've been putting us through." She paused here, as if waiting for some sort of response when none came she continued " We appreciate the interest in helping us, but we…can't continue on like this, we're gonna burnout if we don't let up."

She examined Thor's face for any sign irritation but didn't find any. He just stared at them.

* * *

She was right, and he knew it. He'd told them the same thing when they first started, the body needed to recuperate. He'd let his fear grip him whole and take him for a ride.

He sighed and let his neck go limp while he closed his eyes. "You're right." Was all he said at first.

With his eyes closed, he didn't see the slightly confused looks of Team RWBY. They hadn't expected it to go that smoothly. They had expected some sort of argument from him or at last show some irritation. But he just rolled with the suggestion.

Before any of them could ask for more clarification, Thor spoke again "I've let my fear run me these past weeks, and I can't let it. I'm sorry for pushing you all the way I have." He stood as he spoke, looking a bit ashamed of himself."If you still want to be to train you, I will, but I won't push you like I have."

"We don't want to stop." Blake said speaking up, "We just want to slow down a bit."

Thor nodded at this, "Well talk more about a schedule later, but I, and I'm sure you as well, are tired and need to get some sleep."

They all agreed with that and headed off to their dorm room together.

* * *

The next day Thor woke with a sense of foreboding he didn't fully understand. He was up to date on his assignments and class work.

He felt like something was coming that he wasn't going to like. His first thoughts were of the dreams, but that didn't feel right in his gut.

He got ready for the day, all his roommate had already gone, which was unusual, if he wasn't the first one up, he was the second. But they were all gone. He checked the clock, and he hadn't overslept.

He walked into the hall, and it too was empty. "Something isn't right."

He continued to walk the halls, and they were completely deserted.

Thor checked the cafeteria, and it too was void of life. He went to classes rooms, training rooms, and the courtyard.

Nothing.

"HELLO!" he shouted…nothing.

It was then that it hit him that he didn't hear anything other than the wind. No birds, no hum of electronics, no buzzing from lights or the hum of motors.

"Where is everyone!" he shouted. Now on the verge of panic as he ran through the school to the locker room. Pulling out his scroll he tried to open his locker and get his equipment out. But his scroll and the lockers were all dead, nothing was reacting.

"Come on!" he shouted pounding on it to no avail, he was strong, but these were designed to securely lock weapons, and he wasn't that strong. "Shit!" he shouted throwing the locker over on its side.

Pacing back and forth he tried to get a grip on his emotions. Not a soul was to be found in the school, and everything else seemed inert.

He needed to get out of here and find someone.

Running down the halls he checked the lights and all the electronics he found along the way, and they were all dead.

As he got to the docking bay, he noticed more and more as leaves and what looked like yard debris litter the halls, like doors and windows had been left open.

Once he reached the landing pad, it was clear to him he was stuck here. All the Bullheads were gone, and the bay looked like it hadn't been in use for some time.

Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he needed to think clearly, not run around like a maniac.

No one was here, all the power seemed to be off, and any animals that hung around were gone. Then there was the fact the halls looked like they'd been neglected for some time, with leaves and grass blowing around them.

Again all he heard was the wind blowing, but this time he thought he heard a whisper in it.

That made him perk up and listen. Was there someone here?

"Hello?" he said, this time quieter than the shouting he'd been doing.

He heard the whisper again, and he thought it was coming from behind him.

Turning, he followed it back towards the school.

"Is anyone there?"

The wind again, but this time he thought he heard his name mixed in. Following where he thought it came from, he moved on.

He hears a whisper of his name this time, "Thor…"

It was coming from the cafeteria, which he was certain he'd already checked. Scratch that, he knew he's checked it, but he was starting to notice that it wasn't how it had been a short while ago.

It looked destroyed, which was impossible, he'd just been there, and he hadn't heard any commotion while he'd been running around. He also noticed a trail of blood on the ground.

Feeling his heart rate spike, he ran to the nearest door and pulled it open.

And woke up in his cot, covered in cold sweat.

* * *

Looking around the room, it was still dark. He got up and looked into all the beds, to make sure team RWBY was still there.

Wiping his hand over his face, he took a deep breath, calming himself down. As he did, the sun began to rise and heard the birds chirping. That calmed him down more than he ever would have thought possible. The birds were here, his friends were still here.

"It was just a dream." He said to himself. Or was it, this felt so real. Like the visions, but this one felt so real, but much more literal, after a fashion. He didn't know how to describe it, but this one didn't seem to have the metaphorical feel of the last two. It was the school, abandoned and without power.

But it might not have been a vision at all. The last two, all his bunk mates had one as well to go with his. But they were sleeping soundly.

It could be they just didn't always experience the visions when he did, but that wasn't likely, at least from what he'd seen so far. He hadn't had one until he was sleeping in the same room as them, and both times prior they had shared the experience.

He supposed they could be having them right now, they just weren't as disturbing as his.

Thinking of this, he went to look at the faces of roommates, examining them for expressions of distress or fear.

He didn't find any signs of concern. Indeed one or two looked like they were smiling.

Maybe it wasn't a vision after all. But it was vivid enough that it at least meant something, even if it wasn't prophetic, it could still be about something that was bothering him.

But what was bothering him? The impending disaster was top of his mind, but the dream didn't give off that sort of feeling. The sensation was a crushing feeling of being alone, not a soul around, except for the phantom voice.

He felt like someone had dumped a bucket of ice water down his back. He was alone, wasn't he? Here, in the world, as much as he looked like them, he wasn't. He had a body like their's, but his mind knew things, things that they couldn't comprehend. The Universe, the beings that inhabited it, the sheer number of years he'd truly lived, they couldn't actually understand. The things he'd seen, none of them could relate.

Add to the fact that most of his peers were teenagers, that didn't help the matter. His mood itself was more unstable than before as well, and he didn't doubt for a moment his body was affecting his mood. He was a man stuck in a teenagers body, he didn't like it the first he'd gone through this phase, and wasn't thrilled to be doing it again.

Granted, last time he'd done it, he'd run wild like a maniac, causing problems to no end. Now, his experience tempered his impulse, but it was still there.

Walking over to his bed, he looked at his roommates, and the feelings of loneliness punched him in the stomach.

* * *

The Team, as far as outsiders could see, had returned to normal, more or less. They were still training hard, but they had more or less returned to original dynamic.

But Thor's had changed, but moving from a stern and serious mindset to a melancholy and dark one. It was something the students talked about, but the fact of the matter was, Thor wasn't close enough to the rest of the student body to warrant any of them really asking him about it.

Those that had any degree of closeness with him had tried but been rebuffed. Ruby had been told, "I'm all right, just…thinking."

Jaune was given a line about "Needing space." And Velvet was told, "It's personal."

The rest of team RWBY had thought of trying to talk to him but were stopped by some sort f internal reasoning. Blake was of the opinion that if he had a private issue, he needed to work through, and didn't want to talk about it, that was his right.

Weiss's reasoning was the most coolly logical. It wasn't her business, and she'd leave it alone.

Of the two remaining members of team RWBY, Yang came to the closest to actually talking to him. She was certain he was depressed about something. She knew because she'd gone through the same phase when she was trying to track down her birth mother.

But he didn't want to discuss his family, the few times it had ever come up, he gave nothing more than a few lines of information.

She wondered about his family, especially after the book Blake found told them about…well…Not him, but what he'd based his back story on. Which made her all the more curious about his past.

But she wasn't going to pry, it would only make him more upset, or at least get him irritated at her. She didn't want him mad at her, she wasn't sure why, but it felt like how he dreaded making Ruby or her dad upset, or even Weiss and Blake.

But they all had been spending time with him, training mostly, but even in their shared room. She supposed that some level of closeness was unavoidable.

Whatever he was going through, she hoped he'd get through it all right. She'd step in if she thought he was in real danger of hurting himself, but right now, it may be best to leave him alone to work it out.

* * *

Thor didn't know what the Hel he'd done this time to be in Ozpin's office again, but he was certain it was a mistake. He'd kept his nose clean, and had been staying with his studies.

"You can relax Mr. Odinson, you aren't in trouble," Ozpin said.

Thor relaxed at this but was trying to pick something out that seemed off about the headmaster, he couldn't put his finger on it, but something wasn't right.

"As I told you in our last discussion, your skill sets in battle far exceed that of your peers here. I mentioned a task for you during the tournament."

Thor perked up at this, sitting up straighter in his chair.

"This isn't that." Ozpin watched as Thor's shoulder sagged a bit at this. "But we are going to be sending a student on missions shortly, now typically first-year students are attended by a professional Hunter or Huntress, but in your case, I believe an exception could be made. "

'Well, that was a welcome change of pace.' Thor thought to himself.

"It won't be for some time yet, but I wanted to ask if you'd be alright taking a solo mission instead of a team mission when the time comes."

"Of course, I'm ready to take any task you have!" Thor said jumping to his feet.

"Very well, I'll let you know when your mission once the time comes, until then, enjoy the dance."

Thor smiled as he left the office.

* * *

As Thor left, Ozpin pulled open his desk drawer and pulled his coffee mug out, still filled with hot coffee.

He'd suspected, and the lack of the tell reaction in this conversation, something about him sipping coffee was irritating the boy. Taking a sip, he pondered on what he'd just done.

The boy's attitude had markedly changed over the past few weeks, and he didn't know what the cause was, but he suspected and had been correct it seemed, that giving him something to look forward to would lift his spirits.

Was it possible he was simply bored? He guessed it was, his sparring matched in the class had all be so lop sided that Glynda had stopped having him sparring time. Only Miss Nikos would likely present a challenge, but the two were both very competitive, and very skilled, the chances of control being lost were too high for his liking. What was more, they both were too valuable to risk injury in a class room sparring match.

But Thor mood was of concern as well. In a few weeks, he'd gone from extremely extroverted and carefree, to serious and workhorse, to melancholic and somber. He feared the boy may not be entirely emotionally stable, he'd seen that he also had a temper on him.

It wasn't that he thought he'd hurt another student intentionally, but something or several something was bothering him to the point he had mood swings that were quite dramatic. In a high-stress situation, who knew what could happen, another reason he is given a solo mission.

He worried about him and worried about him.

Sipping his coffee again, he leaned back into his chair, to think.

* * *

Thor had felt his mood pick up at the idea of getting a solo mission. Some real action and he could cut loose without worrying about hurting his team.

He wondered what it would be, probably a Grimm extermination mission most likely, but he hoped for some stronger Grimm than what was typically encountered with the school.

Ozpin had told him to enjoy the dance though, and he realized he had no clue when it actually was. After he got Velvet a date with Jaune, it had slipped out of his mind. He hadn't really cared to go, but maybe he would now.

* * *

The Dance

Well, this was turning out about as well as expected. It was a relatively subdued affair, which he supposed wasn't without its charm, but it wasn't what he considered a good time.

He noticed a few of his classmates, Blake had a dance with Yang, then spent time with Sun. Jaune looked ecstatic at the fact he had a date, and while it may not have been the girl he was really after, both seemed to be enjoying themselves.

He had come alone. He'd had more than a few girls ask him, but he'd turned them down as nicely as he could. He wasn't about to get drawn into the teenage dating drama himself if he could avoid it. He may go out with a girl once and while, but as far as regularly dating one of them, he was planning on avoiding that.

He thought he might call it a night, head back to his dorm to get some sleep.

That was when he noticed Ruby standing by herself off to the side of the activity.

Walking over to her as she sipped her punch. "Enjoying the dance?" he asked knowing the answer.

"I'm not…really into this type of thing." She replied meekly.

"I see." He said smiling.

Ruby laughed at this response. His mood had improved over the past few days, she didn't know why, but she was more like his old self. Not just like it, or even really close. But he was smiling again, talking to people. His loud, boisterous behavior had fallen to the way side, but she was glad his mood had broken.

"You don't like dance?" he asked her.

"Ummm… I don't know, I guess not, but I never tried it."

With out saying a word took the drink out of her hand and set it on the punch table. Then he took her hand.

"Well, if you don't know, dance with me." His smile radiating down on her.

"Thor, come on I…wait!" she cried as Thor pulled her onto the dance floor.

The song was a slow dance, and Thor pulled her along with his steps.

Ruby was red in the face, completely embarrassed by this sudden action "Thor, please stop!" she whispered to him as he leads her quickly through the steps he was performing.

"Why?" He smirked at her "You're actually pretty good from someone who has never danced before."

"People are staring at us!" she hissed at him, unsure if she'd survive this embarrassment.

"They just wish they could move like this," Thor said as he made a more advanced move with his feet the Ruby did her best to follow.

"You're doing beautifully little sister." He whispered to her so no one near could hear.

Ruby knew she'd never been able to break free, he was too strong. She'd just have to ride it out and escape as soon as she could.

When the song ended, Ruby made to bolt, ready to hide in her room. Yang was wrong coming here was a terrible idea.

But Thor was laughing, and still hadn't let go of her hand.

"Please let me go." She felt like she was near tears, not only was she thoroughly embarrassed, but she felt betrayed by someone she thought of like an older brother. How could he do this to her?

But he smiled down at her "You dance beautifully for someone hates it. Although, some say that dancing and battle go hand in hand."

"Thor…" she whimpered.

"Ruby." He started his voice softer than before. "look," he said as he gestured to the crowd around them.

Some people looked mildly interested in the dancing duo, but the interest had dissipated, and they were back to their own business. Other's hadn't given them a second glance.

"No one thinks's any less of you for that little dance."

She looked around, and no one was laughing or pointing at her. They were going on about their night.

"Ruby, you'll find that in situations like this, social situations, so as long as don't you make a spectacle of yourself, people aren't going to judge you."

She didn't know why, but she felt much better over the whole ordeal. Maybe it was that she survived a dance and wasn't hurt. Or maybe it was Thor's words, but he was right, there wasn't any reason to be scared of these sorts of things.

That didn't mean she liked them one bit, but she was feeling that if she had to, she could do something like this again, like fighting the tournament in front of a huge audience.

That had been troubling her all semester, but that was her element, and Thor was right if she just didn't try to actively make a fool of herself, she'd be okay.

* * *

The Mission

This was about what he expected for a mission. Grimm extermination, but at least he was being deployed far beyond the city, past Mountain Glen by a significant distance. And he was by himself, he wouldn't have to share the Grimm.

As he soared through the air, being pulled by his hammer, he couldn't help but note that this was not a very controlled form of flight. It was only marginally better than riding a cannonball, granted he could control direction, but it was far from fine control. He could get in a general area, but if he were asked to land on say a landing pad, well, he'd have maybe a One in Ten chance of doing it successfully.

The same mechanism that kept other's from picking it up without his belt was the same one that allowed him to throw it and call it back, as well as left it to pull him along. It used gravity dust, along with several other mechanisms to achieve this effect, and while it worked, it was far from pinpoint control.

He landed on the ground, more roughly than he had intended, he hadn't ever tried to fly this far with the hammer before, and he felt that it was starting to push the limits of its capabilities. He felt the disks on his vest and belt, and they were hot to the touch. He'd have to let them cool off before he used it too extensively again. He didn't know what would happen if he pushed it past the breaking strain. It may just burn out the equipment, or, he supposed it was possible that it would be a catastrophic failure.

But he wasn't concerned with it at the moment, he was at his designated site, and he'd complete his mission in a day or two, then head back to Beacon.

* * *

The Last Beowulf's head rolled away, and its body began to turn to vapor. Thor flipped the ax head of his hammer over, smiling at the remains of the pack. These Beowulfs were much tougher than the ones found near the school and provided him with some decent entertainment.

He pulled out his scroll and ticked off the number he had killed. He'd been given a number of Grimm to kill, as well as a rough makeup of the type. This should be the last of Beowulf in the area, although he knew these were not likely entirely accurate numbers, not only because the scouting was hard, but these were not in real-time either. More could have wandered in or out of the area in the time between when the data was gathered and when he arrived.

But the larger Grimm, the ones he really wanted to face, was nowhere to be found. That was odd, Grimm didn't hang around too long in one area without reason, but that every single one of the bigger ones were gone.

That was curious to him unless something had drawn them away or forced them out, he should at least be seeing signs of them.

As he walked through the wilderness, he looked for any evidence of the larger Grimm, Ursa, Nevermore, Death Stalker or a King Taijitu, all had been reported in the area, even sightings of a Beringel. But he hadn't seen any recent signs of them.

He continued to search for marks or tracks until he found a long drag path. Bending down to one knee, he ran his hand over it, it was relatively recent, no more than a day old. If he had to guess, it was a King Taijitu.

Looking down the path it had made, he guessed it was larger than average, but not anything he couldn't handle.

But what was confusing to him, was it hadn't come to investigate his fight with the Beowulfs or when he arrived.

He followed the path it had made, hoping to finally have some big game.

* * *

Night had fallen, and the trail still continued, and if he was to guess, the thing was heading towards Vale. Granted, he was still far enough away that may just be moving in a random direction.

But it was too dark to continue now anyway, and he found a rock outcropping that offers decent shelter and decided to hunker down for the night.

Starting a camp fire and pulling a can of pork and beans out of his pack, he opened the can and put it in the fire to warm it up.

It only took a few minutes to get them warm before he pulled it out and began to eat.

Not great, but it would be okay for a day or two. While he ate, he wondered about the surprising lack of Grimm in the area. The mission statement had made it sound like they were infesting the area, but he'd only encountered the Beowulfs, and even those could be new to the area.

Had they been driven out? Not likely, but it was not beyond the possibility they were being drawn to something else. Negative emotion attracted Grimm, were they following a trail of negativity to the city?

That didn't seem right to him, given the distance this area was from the city, Mountain Glen may have made sense, but that was long abandoned.

He just couldn't figure it out with the information he had.

He'd sleep on it, follow the trail in the morning and figure this out.

* * *

The Dream came again that night. The School was empty, looking even abandoned. And the voice returned, and Thor followed it again to the Cafeteria. But this time he woke up before he even reached the door.

At first, he didn't know what had woken him, at first all he felt was pressure on his left ankle.

But then he saw it, a huge Ursa was pulled on his leg, jaws around his ankle.

As he sat up, the giant beast whipped it was head to the side and threw him near fifty feet. He'd of gone further if he hadn't hit a large Oak tree, splintering it.

Rolling to his knees, he tried to stand but shouted in pain as he looked at his left ankle. It was a bloody mangled mess.

Looking up he saw the beast charging him. Bracing his right foot against the tree, he pushed off with all his strength and swung a haymaker at the Ursa as the distance closed.

His first landed with a loud "CRACK!", and the beast went rolling.

He'd hurt it, but it was far from done, but he'd given himself an opening. Calling his hammer to his hand, he channeled a bolt of lightning into the head, and as the Ursa charged him again, he slipped it around and brought the axe blade down into its armored skull. The blade bite in deep, and the lighting enhanced the blow, and the creatures head exploded in a magnificent display of light and blood.

At that moment, he'd forgotten about his ankle and put weight on it, only for it to give out and collapse under him and he had to put his hammer on the ground to brace himself.

Hissing in pain, he sat on the ground and pulled his pant leg up to see the damage. It was bad, the lacerations from the things teeth had been bad, but the thing had broken something in his ankle. It wasn't bleeding anymore, thanks to his Aura, but the injury wasn't healing, he needed to patch it up to so his Aura could stop focusing on the keeping his blood in him and start mending the flesh and bone.

Pulling out his first aid kit, he did a quick field dress and pulled his pant leg back down.

He tried to stand, but he needed his hammer to act as a cane. This was bad, he was alone, and no one was coming to get him. He'd have to abandon the mission to get proper care for his leg. He could make the flight back, he was closer to the school now than he'd been on his first day out here. He'd be able to make the flight, but he wasn't looking forward to the landing, that was going to hurt, but his wounded pride was going to linger longer than the injury. He'd been given a solo mission and had only managed to kill a pack of Beowulfs and an Ursa.

That damn dream had attracted it to him in his sleep when his defense was down. Something as stupid as a bad dream had destroyed his mission.

Grinding his teeth, Thor began to spin his hammer up and then took off into the air, back to the school, to meet the failure.

* * *

What he saw as he passed over the city, he started to have an idea where all the Grimm he was supposed to be hunting had gone. The City was being swarmed with Grimm, and he saw team's RWBY and JNPR fighting them.

He may be able to redeem himself a bit here.

Diving towards the battle, he started to charge the air with an electrical field.

* * *

Ruby was feeling a bit overwhelmed by the sheer number of Grimm. Even with JNPR, there were more Grimm than they could comfortably handle.

But a loud thunder crack and a flash of light made her heart jump with joy. Turning to see the last of the electrical energy discharge from the air as several Beowulfs and smaller Uras keeled over dead.

She remembers the day of initiation, and looked to the sky, and saw what she had known she'd see.

"Thor!" she cried, with joy and relief. The Cavalry was here.

* * *

Yang turned with the rest of her team to look at the commotion, and they didn't need Ruby to shout Thor's name to know who had come. She had thought he was on a solo mission, but then again, of course, he'd finished it.

She smiled as he came in for a landing.

But as he did it was evident something was wrong. He didn't land with any semblance of grace, not like the other times she'd seen him do it. He landed and hit the ground hard, but not like a controlled landing, but more like a crash.

He crumpled to the ground and went rolling and flipping along the ground until he crashed into a mailbox crushing it. His hammer went flying out of his hand and into a nearby store window, shattering it into a million pieces.

"Thor?" she spoke out loud without even realizing it.

* * *

Thor hissed in pain as he braced himself on the mailbox to pull himself up, putting all his weight on his right leg. He's screwed up his landing and in an attempt to brace himself without thinking, threw his left leg out to keep himself up, but all that didn't cause the broken bones to grind together.

The resulting inability to slow himself down had caused him to so rolling along the ground and he lost his hammer.

Putting his hand out, he called it back to him. Catching it in his right hand, he looked at his surroundings.

Several Grimm were moving in on him. This time, he called the wind, but mixed it with the fire dust in his vest, and created a spiral of fire the incinerated them.

Catching his breath, he suddenly felt a tremendous force hit him in the center of his lower back. The strength of the impact sent him rolling ten feet before he managed to stop himself.

A giant Ape Grimm was barely towards him, and now he was certain this is where his target's had gone.

The creature was fast, too fast for him while he was injured. Instead, he blocked its swing with his hammer.

It was like getting hit by a train, but he stayed up and swung back.

His strike landed home, and hurt the beast, but it grabbed his hammer, and he found himself being pushed back, and with only one good leg, he dropped to his left knee to stop it. But it's brute strength was forcing him back along the ground.

Charging the atmosphere again, he channeled the lighting through his hammer and into the Grimm.

It howled in pain, but instead of dying, it pulled on the hammer while Thor still gripped it tightly and threw him.

Without thinking, he dropped the hammer as he flew away and crashed through a shop window. Sailing through it and into the back wall, he crumpled to the ground.

Looking out the shattered window, he saw the Grimm pulling on the hammer, to an avail. And while it struggled to lift it, Thor saw a red blur speed past it from behind, severing its head clean off its shoulders.

Looking at his ankle, he saw he was bleeding again, either the landing or the brief fight had re-opened the injury, and it hurt worse than ever now.

But he wouldn't let something like that slow him down. Getting up, he called his hammer back to his hand but stopped when he heard the ringing of gunfire.

* * *

As he limped out of the wrecked shop, he saw more students and a large military force destroying the Grimm. Even the teachers had arrived to help.

But instead of relief, he felt utter shame. He's failed in his own mission, which was bad. But this was a reminder of how far he'd fallen. His actual power would have turned all these Grimm to ash in an instant, and here was hobbled by a lucky bite from an above average Grimm.

He limped out into the dying chaos, the Grimm was more or less destroyed, and they didn't seem to be coming in anymore.

"Thor!" Someone came running up behind, him and he turned just in time to catch Ruby as she tackled him, and unlike any other time she'd done this, he fell.

Ruby was immediately apologizing, but the rest of her team came up behind her.

"What the hell happened to your leg!" He heard Yang shout.

* * *

Why he'd crashed landed was clear now, his left leg was mangled, or at least the ankle was.

"Nothing, just from my mission." He said as he stood up, but it was clear that he couldn't put any weight on that leg.

"You need to see a Doctor." She said, "Come on, we'll get you on a Bullhead and back to the school."

Thor looked like he was on the verge of resisting the idea, but he didn't offer any vocal resistance but didn't look too happy at the notion.

He probably wanted to fly back on his own, but she was betting the memory of the rough landing he'd just experienced was still too fresh in his mind to ignore.

He tried to limp off on his own, but Yang got under his arm to help him along. He didn't resist her, but he didn't thank her either, he just accepted it and moved toward the nearest Bullhead.

* * *

Thor sat in the infirmary, ankle properly dressed and on the mend. The Doctor told him he'd be good a new in three weeks, but to take it easy on the leg until them.

He was getting ready to leave when he got some visitors.

Team RWBY came in, Ruby and Yang leading the pack, Weiss, and Blake bringing up the rear.

"How's the patient?" Yang asked in a joking tone.

"I'm fine, thank you very much, I'll be good as new in three weeks." He responded in an even tone. Before they could say anything else, he spoke again. "Thank you, for the help, I wasn't grateful at the time, but I am now."

Yang waved him off as if to say 'No big deal.' "What we want to know is how you hurt yourself in the first place. I mean, you're not exactly a push over. What could hurt you that badly?"

Thor ran his tongue over his teeth with his lips tightly shut while he thought. He eventually decided on the truth "I was attacked while I was asleep, a large Ursa got my leg, that's all."

"Really? It wasn't some, super rare Grimm or an assassin?" Ruby asked meekly.

"No, just a larger than average Ursa, so let that be a lesson to all of you for letting your guard down." He responded.

"Goes to show you the advantage of having a team huh?" Yang said with a smirk.

Thor just rolled his eyes and got out of the bed. "Perhaps you're right, but at any rate, I'm ready to leave." He picked up the cane the doctor had given him and started to make his way to the door.

* * *

Cinder wasn't thrilled with how the plan had turned out. She'd lost an ally and major dust supplier. But it still wasn't a total loss. The fear of the incident had set in motion other events they needed for their plan to work, and primed the populace with an underlying fear.

But there had also been a bonus. Thor Odinson had been hurt, not mortally or even long term. But he had bled, and been hobbled. He wasn't indestrutable, like Mercury and Emerald had begun to fear. He was still just a man after all.

* * *

 **A/N: Okay, there you have it. That's the end of the Volume 2 material, and once I get past Volume 3 the material is going to be become more originals.**

 **As always Reviews are appreciated.**


	5. The Fall

**A/N: Okay, this is the first new chapter since I re-cut the first.**

 **This is also the mark of the end of where I'm following the Canon story line. So after this, it will be more original ideas, rather than a retelling of already viewed events.**

 **Also, I'd like to thank runelt99 and MarcusMebadd for their reviews. You two are the only one who bothered and I truly appreciate it.**

 **And runelt99 asked a Question, if Ozpin knew about the book about he Nordic Mythology. That is a good question, but in my mind, no he didn't. It's suppose to be, in my mind, a book that is just old and forgoettne, that Blake got lucky to find. As well as show that Ozpin is working on more a Big picture idea, rather than the smaller detail.**

 **Well, here in the next chapter, Please review and help me out!**

* * *

Chapter 4

* * *

Thor watched the match with interest, as this was a representation of his teaching as much as their skill.

They certainly didn't disappoint, they all showed improvement in the areas he'd tried to train them in, Weiss was capable of more aggressive movements without tiring, Yang was much more tactical in her fighting style, and Blakes weapons upgrades were knocking her opponents on their rear.

The only one who he'd yet to actually see in action in the field he'd trained her in was Ruby. She hadn't lost her weapon, so it didn't come up.

But there were winning their team match, quickly. To the untrained eye, it may look even, but to him, it was clear Team RWBY was winning.

He didn't shout or scream like the other members of the audience, but he still swelled with pride at their performance. They were showing skills expected of third of fourth-year students.

It was over in an instant, the last three members of the opposing team were out, and team RWBY had won, as he expected of course.

He stood up gingerly as went to the locker room to congratulate them. His ankle was still a little sore, but the doctor had assured him that it would dissipate in a few more days.

With that, he limped off to see his friends.

* * *

The Festival was great, as far as Ruby was concerned this was the coolest thing she'd seen since she started at Beacon. The booths were so cool, and the Tournament was just the best. All those fights, the weapons, and warriors, it was beyond words for her.

Her anxiety over performing in front of such a large audience had been curbed, even if she was still nervous about it, it was no longer the terror it had been. Thor was at least a bit responsible for that, his word to her at the dance was really encouraging.

Speaking of Thor, she spotted him limping towards them. His ankle still hadn't totally healed, but he told them it would be better for a few days, and she believed him, given the progress he'd made so far.

"Excellent Job!" he called to them, making the rest of the team look to greet him.

The ever stoic Blake didn't do more than a smile, Weiss just turned from him frowning a little too hard to make Ruby believe it was real. Yang and herself, however, returned his greeting.

"You did an excellent job today, I see my training has paid off."

"We'd of rocked them anyway!" Yang boasted "But your tips did help." She finished in a quieter tone.

Thor just smiled at her, and Yang returned the grin.

Ruby couldn't help but think of her earlier, and feeble attempts to set them up. She felt a little embarrassed about it now, realizing that she hadn't been all the clever about it.

She still thought they were made for each other. But they weren't moving towards that, at all. After the dance, Ruby had even heard a few rumors that she and Thor were going out after he danced with her.

Those rumors didn't ever gain any traction and had less died off over the weeks that followed. But the idea of her and Thor being together was ridiculous. He would never date someone like her, she was too young for one and too dorky for two. Not that she wasn't sure he didn't like her, but he'd turned down Velvet for God's sake, why would he ever go out with her?

She watches Thor as he talked to the rest of her team, and felt an odd sense of comfort and loneliness. What was that about?

Shaking her head, she followed them all as they headed to enjoy the festival, pushing the feeling aside for now.

* * *

Thor hadn't been thrilled at his exclusion from the Tournament, but he had comes to terms with it, and besides Ozpin had something else for him to do. Or at least he did, he didn't know now, given how his solo mission had gone so poorly.

But with no word to the contrary, he assumed that was still the case. For now, he'd enjoy the festival and what it had to offer.

His dreams hadn't stopped, the one of him wandering the abandoned school, and he hadn't told anyone that this was the dream that likely had produced the negative emotion that attracted the Ursa to him in the first place.

At this point, he was sure it wasn't a vision, he was certain it was just telling him how lonely he was.

That wasn't comforting in the least, but he'd made an effort to hide it. He didn't need to trouble others with his own issues. They wouldn't understand, or couldn't, he wasn't sure which was more applicable to the situation.

But he put it out of his mind, for now, there were distractions to be found here, food, games, and shops, although the last one held little appeal to him, sometimes he'd seen something interesting.

The girls all stopped at a noodle stand to get something to eat, and he decided this was a good a place to get food.

Weiss volunteered to pay, but her card didn't work for some reason he couldn't comprehend, given her personal wealth. He was ready to fork over his own cash to pay but was interrupted by the arrival of Team JNPR.

Pyrrha offered to pay, and Thor wasn't going to complain. She had the money to spare, given her sponsorship deals.

He ate much slower than usual and listened to the teams talk about the tournament. Nora seemed confident but didn't hold much confidence in her team leader, despite her trying to find something to praise about him.

Nora, while a kind girl, didn't have the intuition some others had, like seeing Jaune's strength's lay in his ability to coordinate his team. Granted that wouldn't do his team much good after the first round of competition, there was no way he'd fight in the double's round, he'd gotten better, but his teammates were still leagues ahead of him in combat.

He didn't doubt they would proceed to the doubles round, their teamwork was some of the best he'd seen. But who would be fighting after that, was still a mystery to him.

Pyrrha was definitely going to be in the next round of fights, but who she'd be fighting alongside was still up in the air to him. If it were up to him, he'd picked Nora over Ren. Ren may have been overall a stronger student, and possibly a shade more skilled in combat, but Nora was the team's powerhouse, and frankly, while Ren was good, Pyrrha was better, and they filled similar roles in a fight.

But that wasn't any of his concern, not really, it was up to them, and he was sure they knew who was best.

* * *

As he has expected, team JNPR had beaten their opponents pretty handily. Jaune had improved tremendously. Had he been on the level he was at the beginning of the year, he'd of been defeated mere moments into the start of the match, but he'd held his own. But Pyrrha and Nora had been the most impressive overall. Pyrrha was naturally brilliant, but Nora virtually taking out the whole team by herself with one swing of her hammer was indeed entertaining.

But he didn't intend to stick around now, as fun as that match had been. But he didn't think he could enjoy the other matches, it would only remind him that he wasn't allowed to compete.

Walking out of the stadium, he headed back to the school.

* * *

The school was largely abandoned, which gave Thor chills. It was reminding him of his dreams, but the sounds of bird and the occasional student or staff member assured him he wasn't dreaming. He kept telling himself everyone was at the festival and tournament, either competing, watching or helping with it.

He wanted to be part of it, but what Ozpin told him was ringing true, from the matches he'd seen, there wasn't much sport to be found for him there either.

He'd have to wait until he was on a mission again before he'd meet a decent match. He wasn't counting his hard time while he was injured, that was a mistake on his part, not because his opponent had been too strong.

But he didn't much want to go back to the tournament, at last until Weiss and Yang got to their doubles matches.

He just didn't feel like there was anything to do right now. He didn't have any homework, he wasn't competing, and he wasn't part of the student faction that was helping with the tournament.

He thought he might go for a drink, or three, and see where the night took him.

* * *

Turns out the night didn't take him very far. He was on his fifth beer when he'd decided to call it a night, he had no real motivation to get into trouble tonight, more hassle than it was worth right now, given he was still a bit sore from the Ursa bite.

As he walked out of the bar to go the transport back to the school, he felt a chill run down his spine. Stopping and turning around, he saw the street was empty, but he was sure he was being watched. It was something he'd developed over the years, a sort of sixth sense. He could tell when he was being followed.

He pondered calling out but decided to keep going, act as if he'd decided on one was there. If they were out to hurt him, then they'd make their move soon rather than later, because he doubted they would attack him in full view of the transport.

If they were just a creep who wanted to watch him, well, it was only going to last until he got the transport anyway.

He continued on for a few minutes, and just when he was about the turn a corner and bring the Bulkhead pad into sight, he heard a sound barely perceptible to the human ear.

He side stepped as a blade whizzed past the spot where his neck had been. Eye's still on the tip of the blade, he followed it down to see a familiar face. This was Torchwicks bodyguard or lacky, or whatever. But she was far more dangerous than Torchwich himself, as far as in a fight anyway.

She smiled and winked at him "Such a darling little girl." Thor muttered as he returned the smile, and dropped into a fighting stance. This would be interesting.

She seemed to prance in front of him like she was just strolling down the road, then, without warning exploded towards him with lightning speed.

Thor just barely managed to slip his head out of the way as the tip of the blade grazed his cheek. Taking the opportunity of her being this close to him, he jabbed at her head, but she danced out of the way and countered with a slash at his midsection, which he just barely managed to dodge by jumping back.

She was fast, no doubt, but her movement was much more fluid than other huntresses he'd had the chance to face.

He didn't have his gear, but he was far from helpless. He had his semblance and his skill.

He smirked at her, and she smiled back. He didn't know if she was as confident as he was, or if it was just a tactic to mess with his head. Either way, he didn't feel any immediate threat as she charged him again.

This time he lunged into her thrust, catching her off guard, but not enough to do any real damage, and she slipped his punch, and it only grazed her cheek.

He had a plan, but he needed her to make one mistake, and he wasn't sure how he was going to goad her into making it.

That graze had either irritated her or panicked her because she was becoming more aggressive with her attacks, and Thor was being put on the defensive. Her speed with her blade along with her superior reach was making it harder for him to get a hit in.

As the fight progressed, they found themselves in an alley, and Thor was suddenly hit with inspiration. Taking a quick inventory of his surroundings, he found what he was looking for, and large trash can.

Jumping back, he picked it up over his head a threw it at the girl. He managed to get a look at her surprise, and she opened her parasol to keep herself from being covered in garbage.

As she lowered it, he noted her expression, and it was as if she thought he was joking with such a desperate attempt to hurt her.

Well, he wasn't trying to hurt her. She'd done what he wanted, calling on her semblance, he generated a huge gust of the wind behind her.

Before she knew what had happened, the winds had pulled on her parasol and lifted her up with tremendous force into the fire escape just above her, where she slammed into it with enough force to shake the whole structure.

She bounced as she hit the ground, and looked up to see Thor charging her, Lighting radiating off his body. She rolled to her feet still dazed and thrust at his with the blade, only for it to work as a lightning rod, and explode in her hand, throwing her back a few feet.

She landed hard on her back and looked up as Thor towered over her "You know." He said, "You're never supposed to use an umbrella in a thunder storm."

And with that, he raised his foot to stomp down on her chest. Only for her to shatter like glass.

Thor wasn't surprised this time. He'd expected this the moment he'd thrown her into the fire escape. In fact, he was surprised she hung around long enough to let her weapon be destroyed.

Taking a deep breath, he deactivated his semblance, and he started to wonder why she was after him. Team RWBY were the ones who got Torchwick captured.

That thought in his head, he ran to the transport, he needed to tell them.

* * *

It was dark when he got back to Beacon, and he didn't waste any time in the running to his room. He'd left his scroll behind, and it was still in his room, so even if they weren't there, he could at least call them.

He burst in, and to his relief, all four of them were there, and by the looks of them, none the worse for wear.

"Thor! What the hell!" Yang shouted at him.

He'd apparently startled them all with his unexpected entrance, and he knew she should explain himself.

"I was attacked in the city." Was how he decided to got their attention. "Torchwick's bodyguard, whoever she is, attacked me on the way back."

They all looked shocked at this, but Yang had gone wide-eyed "How did you get away?" was all she managed to ask.

"I beat her, or at least scared her off." He said "I think she's after revenge for what happened to her boss, I was worried…" he started to say but trailed off.

Weiss approached him and sniffed him "Have you been drinking?"

"Yes? But that's not the point here, I thought she might have come after you guys."

* * *

Blake could smell the alcohol on him when he walked in, he wasn't drunk, but he'd been drinking.

"Why would she go after you? You didn't get her boss thrown in prison." Blakes asked him.

"I don't know, I expect it was because I was alone in the city." He responded.

That might be true, but what good would it do, even in a revenge plot, to hurt him? Unless she thought it would affect Team RWBY in some way.

That, she realized now, may have been true. They had all grown close to him over the months. Ruby more so than the rest, but even Weiss was fond of him, even if she wouldn't admit it.

Maybe she wanted him dead to draw them out? But even then, there were easier targets, Thor was one of the toughest, strongest hunters she'd ever meet. The fact that the girl had failed was proof of that.

Then it may just be that she and the rest of the team hadn't left the relative saftey of the Festival or school.

This was something her and Ruby could look into, and let Yang and Weiss focus on their match the following day.

* * *

Yang was feeling a little flustered over Thor's little fight. He'd managed to drive off the person who she couldn't even pressure.

But she wasn't so petty as to be jealous over it, Thor was a cut above the ordinary, she thought that by the time they graduated, he could very well be the strongest Hunter in the World.

She was a bit jealous, she realized, but not anymore than when she was normally out competed. In a more general sense, she was happy to be his peer and friend, not just because of his skill, but he was just a good guy.

And he was worried about them, which was sort of cute in a way. She didn't want him to be distressed or anything, but it made her feel good in a way to realize he cared about them all enough to be a worried as he was about them.

* * *

Neo had failed them, although Cinder hadn't expected her to actually win, just test the waters. If she had managed to kill or injure him, all the better.

But it wasn't a complete waste, she'd rattled him, and by now the girls he was sharing his room with had to heard of it as well.

A bit more fear was always good.

* * *

Thor sat next to Ruby and Blake as they watch Yang and Weiss's match. He'd refused to let them go off on their own ever since he'd been attacked.

Ruby didn't mind, Blake, however, was feeling a bit smothered, it was like having her dad around all the time. He wasn't even watching the match, he was scanning the area and stands for a potential attack.

He didn't even cheer when Yang pulled out a come from behind win to take out two opponents to clinch the win.

He was rattled, that much was clear. He wasn't hurt, and if he was to be believed, had dominated the fight, but he was scared of them.

She appreciated the sentiment, but it wasn't needed, they could handle themselves, hadn't they proved it.

They had shown what they could do. They didn't need him to keep them safe.

* * *

Thor wasn't sure what he was even on the lookout for, but he'd had a sense of foreboding ever since his little encounter the night before, and it was reminding him of visions. Nothing specific, just a general feeling.

It was close, and he was sure of it now. In the next few days, something was going to happen, and it would test them all.

* * *

Yang and Weiss were naturally thrilled over their win, and Yang was moving onto the singles part of the tournament.

Thor left the team alone, so long as they were together, they were safe. Tonight he was going head back into the city, and try and get that girl to attack him again, only he planned to capture her this time.

He had a plan for it, he just had to draw her out.

As he headed to the city, he hoped she'd be foolish enough to try and take him down again.

* * *

He'd been at the bar for hours now and had a pretty good buzz going on. He wanted to replicate the situation as closely as he could, but he thought he might have overdone the drinking part.

He hadn't kept track of what he'd had to drink, the bartender just kept bringing him more to drink, and he'd lost track of time.

When Closing time was called, he realized he'd been here for hours now. Standing up, he staggered, he'd had way too much to drink, and for the first time in a long time, he was certain he was drunk.

He stumbled to the door and wandered out into the night. He found himself hoping he wasn't attacked this night.

Whatever he'd been drinking was stronger than he thought, and he'd been drinking more than he thought.

He found his way to an alley and slumped against the wall. He's screwed up, again, he hadn't paid attention to what he was doing and put himself in a compromising situation.

He only thought of how he hoped that no one came to kill him as he slept.

* * *

Neo smirked as Thor slumped against the wall. She'd given up taking him head on, but there was more than one way to skin a cat. She's had the bartender serve him a much stronger drink than he requested, and laced it with some other chemicals to put him out of commission for a day or two.

As he slept, she put her blade to his throat. It would be so easy to kill him how, while he was passed out from the drugs and alcohol. But she wanted him awake when she did it, she wanted them all awake, she wants to see the light fade from their eyes.

Turning and walking away, she knew that soon, she gets what she wanted.

* * *

Thor couldn't remember the last time he woke up with a hangover, but this was probably the worst one he'd ever had. Rolling onto his knees, he slowly got to his feet and steadied himself against the wall.

Rubbing his head, he stumbled into the street. This was a stupid plan, and now all he wanted was to get back to Beacon and his cot.

As he made his way to the transport station, he saw the people gathered around television all over the street. At first, he didn't give it a second thought, but soon he recognized Yang and one of the other students from another school. The news feed and video showed her brutally assaulting a beaten opponent.

His heart jumped, and instead of the slow stagger, he ran to the transport station.

* * *

He ran down the hall, to his room. He passed General Ironwood but didn't give him a second glance. As he neared his room, he saw Blake, Weiss and Ruby exiting.

"What happened?" he asked them.

Ruby answered, "You didn't hear?"

"I know what the news is reporting, but I want to know what actually happened." He responded.

Weiss spoke up "She's in there." She gestured to the door "We're giving her some space, but if you want to know, it's her place to tell you, not us."

That was all he needed, and he opened the door and went in.

* * *

Yang sat in a somber silence. She still wondered how this could have happened, she was certain of what she'd seen. He attacked her, no doubt about it.

But why had everyone else seen something else?

As she pondered this line of thought, the door burst open, making her jump.

"Damnit! Thor, you got to stop that!" she shouted once she saw who it was.

"What happened?" was all he said in response.

"You saw it, everyone else knows what happened, just watch the news." She muttered.

"I didn't ask what I saw or what the news says happened, I asked you what actually happened." His tone was serious.

She was touched, that he didn't believe what he saw at face value. "Thor, he attacked me, I don't know why everyone else saw something else, but he attacked me, there is no way what's on the camera's is real!" She was desperate to build any chorus of supporters and really wanted Thor to believe her, her team trusted her, but as far as anyone outside of them, they thought she had seen things.

* * *

Thor sat on the bed opposite of her. He was still feeling sick from last night, but he pushed the sensation away. Yang was telling the truth, as she knew it. He'd seen enough trickery in his life to believe that was the case here, to drive discontent into the crowds and among the competing schools.

"I believe you." He said, "Someone did something to manipulate this scenario to their advantage, but I believe you."

He wasn't sure if he actually did, but she needed to hear it. He never thought for a second she'd do it intentionally, but he wasn't going to rule out the idea that some form of illusion had been used to her to trick her into the attack, in which case she did exactly what everyone thought she did, but it wouldn't be her fault.

Looking into her eye's he saw the pain and confusion. She didn't understand what had happened and was scared by the general response that most people were having. She had a few individuals who supported her, but the world at large thought she had just decided to cripple another student.

But he could tell she also was experiencing some sort of self-doubt, for as much professed her innocence, a shadow of doubt lingered over her head, thinking that maybe she had reacted to a hallucination.

She looked tired, and he stood up to leave her to some alone time. "I'll leave you alone for a bit, I'm sure the rest of your team be by later to check in on you."

She didn't say anything, but she gave him a look he could quiet place as turned to leave the room.

* * *

It was later that day that Thor started to feel like the atmosphere shift and change. What he didn't know what it was, but the air was noticeably heavier than before he'd left the day before. He hadn't noticed when he first arrived, he was still feeling sick and was worried about his friends.

But now that the anxiety had passed, and the hangover was fading, he noticed a marked difference in the general tone and atmosphere of the area.

The presences of large war ships circling the area just seemed to add emphasis to the tension. Something was going to happen, and soon, he was sure of it.

He still worried about Team RWBY's safety, but they would be safe in the school, with all this security floating around.

But someone, or several someones, were trying to do something incredibly dangerous. He didn't have a clue as to what, but his attack the other night and Yang's accident, something was coming to a head and soon.

* * *

He didn't much care for watching the tournament now, but he still wanted to be near by in case anything happened. Ruby was going to be at the stadium, and the team had gone their separate ways for the day, but Ruby was the one he wanted to watch out for the most.

She wasn't helpless, but she was the one most likely to not recognize something off. Yang was still at the school, Blake had disappeared, but she was naturally cautious. Weiss, for all her attitude problems, was more level headed than Ruby.

His problem now was finding her. The was the weird thing about her, she could go unnoticed when she wasn't thinking about and wasn't trying to hide. But if she was trying to stay hidden, she usually gave herself away.

That was one of her issues, she was so self-worried about performing to the standard of other students, she would occasionally over think the situation, and screw herself up. The funny thing was already out-performing most students already, so why she worried about this kind of stuff was baffling to him.

He was currently wandering around the stadium, looking her her. He'd tried calling her, but she didn't answer her scroll, which only added to his anxiety.

As he did, he could hear the cheers of the crowd. Pyrrha was competing against the girl from Atlas, the one Ruby made friends with. He'd actually recognized her from the docks all those months ago, he found out later her name was Penny. She was good, he'd seen a little bit of that first hand, but Pyrrha wasn't a slouch either.

He kinda wanted to watch the fight himself, but Ruby was scaring him, she wasn't answering her scroll, and he just couldn't find her.

That was when he heard the collective gasp of the crowd. He at first just took as an upset or particularly spectacular stunt. But then he heard the screams and yelling. That was not a good sign.

Rushing to down the hall to the general seating, he was greeted by a brutal image.

Penny lay bisected on the arena floor. His mind had a hard time reconciling the image with what he had come expect from the matches, and from Pyrrha. How could she do that?

As he thought of this thing, a voice rang out over the PA system, which he only caught snatches of over his own rushing thoughts. Because he noticed something wrong with the image.

Not just wrong in that a teenage girl had been killed, but the fact there was no blood or gore of any kind on the arena floor.

Squinting his eye, he looked closer and saw that the girl was not made of flesh and blood. She was made of machine parts, either an android or cyborg.

Not that it really mattered, she still a sentient being, with thoughts and feeling, and she had been snuffed out.

As he thought on this, the civilians stampeded out of the stadium, while he just stood there. Looking up he saw a giant Nevermore trying to break through the force field that surrounded the arena.

Looking down into the arena he saw Pyrrha wasn't moving, either in shock or despair. That was when he noticed Ruby rushing into the arena.

He couldn't get into the area from here, which was of course by design, the field kept the audience safe, and in theory kept them from interfering with matches.

Turning around, he ran as fast as he could to get the entrance to the fighting arena.

He was sure this was it, what the dreams had been leading to. The chaos was everywhere in the area, and if the Nevermore was any indication, the Grimm was going to be coming in droves.

* * *

The hallway was long, and by the time he got outside, the Nevermore was dead, and everyone was gone. He's taken a wrong turn ended up taking an extra ten minutes to arrive.

The Grimm had been killed by the lockers, someone had been called en-masse and hit the thing like a barrage of bullets.

Looking around for signs of anyone, he didn't see anyone other than the body of Penny, which had been left on the stadium floor.

Pulling out his scroll, he punched in the code to call his own locker

Then he dialed Ruby, and again, she didn't answer. Growling, he squeezed it hard enough to crack the screen. Looking at it, the screen flickered for a second or two, then blinked out. He tried to turn it back on, but he's damaged it beyond the point of use, so he then threw the now useless scroll aside in frustration. As he waited for it to arrive, he walked over to Penny's body.

From a distance, he couldn't tell if she was an android or a human with cybernetic enhancements, but up close he could see she was entirely mechanical.

He sighed as he reached over and closed her eyes. He'd of liked to cover her up, but he didn't have anything to do so with. The Atlas military would come to retrieve her soon, he was sure of it, she was clearly a highly advanced piece of military hardware.

He hated referring to her as such, but that was what she would be viewed as. He didn't know her well, but he'd seen her an around a bit, she was chipper and friendly if a little strange. Which he supposed was explained now.

He's seen death before, but when it was a young person, it was always harder.

He looked up at the girl as he heard the whistling of his locker flying in. It landed with a crash in front of him. As it opened, he set to work suiting up.

Once he fastened the belt, he lifted his hammer, spun it and took off into the air.

* * *

The School and the City were in total chaos from what he could see. The Atlas military had turned on the civilians, the machines now running rampant. Grimm was swarming the city, and now White Fang foot soldiers were swarming in.

While he watched the events unfolding beneath him, deciding on if he should head to the school or city, he was hit by something big and black.

He rolled through the air, and it took a moment for him to regain his already poor stability in the air. Looking to see what had hit him, he saw a Griffon, circling around to hit him again.

Calling on his semblance, he struck it with a bolt of lightning squarely in the back.

That didn't kill it, but it made the thing drop out of the sky to certain death.

As he watched it fall, he soon realized he too was losing altitude. That was a problem with the system of flight, if he didn't keep moving, he'd start to fall.

This made fighting in the air tricky, he had to make sure he didn't spend too much time on the attack or else he risked falling like a stone.

But, as he started to move again, he realized that his problems were just starting.

Swarms of flying Grimm were heading towards the city and school. Even he couldn't take out that many, even with a full release of his semblance and hammer. He'd take a lot of them out, but they looked like they were coming from over the Horizon.

What was more, he didn't know if his gear could tolerate a protracted fight in the air.

He needed to get on the ground if he was going to keep up with the numbers of enemies.

* * *

He landed hard in the school courtyard, and while he didn't crash this time, he did have to break into a brisk jog, his leg still not capable of taking the sudden stop of how he'd usually land.

The Atlas hardware was destroying the school, and and the White Fang soldiers were moving about unhindered by them. That was a pretty clear indication they had hacked into them somehow, rather than just a software or hardware malfunctions, if they had been the case, they'd attack anything indiscriminately.

Calling a bolt of lightning, he fried several of knight units, which slumped over into smoking piles near instantly. He smiled at this, these androids may be tougher than normal humans or Faunus, but they were still machines, and an electrical charge could still destroy the more sensitive components of their hardware.

His sudden attack caused one of the White Fang soldiers turn and level a rifle at him. But Thor wiped his hammer at the soldier and hit him with enough force to slam him into the wall behind him.

As his hammer flew back into his hand, he scanned the area. He didn't have any form of communication, given that he'd crushed his scroll and thrown it away in irritation. He wished he'd control his temper better, but there was no point in lamenting it now, it was done.

He was wondering where everyone was, the sounds of battle could be heard from all directions, and he wanted to find Team RWBY, but he also knew that it was unlikely they were all together at this point.

His only hope was to fight his way through the school, thinning the enemy numbers, and hope he found them.

As he started off, he was charged by a Beowulf. Raising his hammer, he prepared to strike.

* * *

This was not at all how he'd hoped for these events to play out. Ozpin had suspected some behind the scenes dealing being done by an unknown enemy, but this was far beyond the scope of what he had suspected.

What was more, he couldn't reach Thor or Pyrrha. Pyrrha, whom he'd hoped to take on the Fall Maiden's power, and maybe turn this situation around.

And Thor's Scroll was either off or dead, and he couldn't get him to do the "Mission," he'd promised him. If Pyrrha didn't show up soon, he'd have to try and evacuate Amber without any guard. He'd planned on Thor and Pyrrha working together to reclaim the other half of the power, but right now neither part of his plan was coming together, both students were MIA.

Just as he was about to scrap the whole thing and just take Amber and evacuate her, he heard foot steps behind him and saw that at least half of the situation was salvageable.

* * *

Another Grimm fell to the blade of his hammer, this one looked almost like a dinosaur. What ever was happening, it was drawing in Grimm types he'd never seen in person before.

The sounds of gunfire rang out, and he could tell this time, these weren't standard assault rifle. These sounds were being made by a custom weapon.

Turning, he got ready to fly off towards the sounds, when the earth began to shake.

Keeping his balance, he wondered if maybe a Goliath had entered the area, but then he heard a roar that sent vibrations into his bones.

Looking up towards the noise, he saw the largest Grimm he'd ever seen, in life or in books.

It was a Dragon, with wings that covered the moon as it passed over the head. As it did, a black tar like substance rained down around him.

The black mounds soon formed into Grimm of all types and advanced on him.

He didn't have time to deal with more of these mindless creatures one by one.

Spinning his hammer, he launched himself straight up into the air and called a massive bolt of lightning into his hammer, and came crashing down to the earth. Slamming the hammer head into the ground, sending lightning in every direction, along with large chunks of earth and stone like missiles, shredding the Grimm to pieces and blowing the Grimm to pieces.

He felt a burning in his chest and reached into touch the disks on his chest. They were hot again, he was over taxing the equipment. He couldn't afford for it to fail now, he needed to let it cool off before he started to do anything else too big with it.

That meant pounding the ground to her where he was going, and that's what he did and began to run towards the gun fire.

* * *

Thor had been running for maybe ten minutes when he saw a mane of thick golden hair. That could only be Yang. He called out to her, but over the din of war, she apparently couldn't hear him, and she was moving in the opposite direction.

Changing direction, he went after her. His stride was long he didn't doubt he'd catch her before long.

Until a rogue Paladin unit cut him off. He jumped out of its reach as it swung at him, and cursed to himself.

These units were tougher than the Knight units, and he could afford to electrocute this one yet if he tried that again too soon, he might burn out his equipment.

Before he could come up with a plan of attack, it opened fire on him, forcing him to roll behind a stone bench for cover.

He had one chance to take this thing out quickly, once it paused to reload, he'd make his move.

As the Paladin unit lay into his make shift cover, it felt like hours before he heard it stop, although it couldn't have been more than two minutes.

Jumping out from cover he raised his hammer, with the ax blade facing forward and threw it end over end.

As it soared through the air, Thor watched as the Paladin finished reloading, and just as it got ready to open fire again, the blade buried itself deep into its center of mass.

He's hit something vital, because it keeled over, but not before it let loose a few rounds, which hit Thor in the chest, throwing him onto his back.

Thor gasped as the wind was taken out of him, his Aura stopped most of the force, but it still hit with enough force to take his breath away. He'd hate to see what it would have done to an unprotected target.

Rolling onto his knees, he took several deep breaths to regain his composure. He hoped he'd destroyed something vital in the Paladin's system, other wise it would be on him soon.

Getting stumbling to his feet, he saw that the thing still had some life in it, but it wasn't going to be going anywhere soon. It was sparking and twitching, what ever he'd hit had screwed up its ability to move on its own. Still, he didn't want to get near it. Like a dying animal, it could still be dangerous. He called his hammer back to his hand and continued on the path he'd seen Yang on.

It couldn't have been more than Five minutes total from the time he lost sight of her, but in a war zone, that was more than enough time for things to go south.

He needed to find her, then they could locate the rest of her team, then they might be able to keep this whole situation from turning into a total disaster.

* * *

He'd found her, and Blake.

But he wished he hadn't found them in this situation. They were on the ground, with a man Thor recognized from somewhere, he just couldn't place where, standing over them, sword raised.

Yang looked hurt, badly. He could tell from this angle, but then he noticed something behind the man.

His blood ran cold at the sight. It was a human arm, and the weapon on the wrist was Clearly Yangs.

In an instant, he went from freezing to burning hot and charged.

* * *

Yang was going into shock, her aura was keeping her from bleeding out, but the sudden loss of an arm was simply too traumatic to ignore. She needed to get her out of here.

Adam was advancing on them, and neither was in a situation to fight him, even at their best, he might have been able to take them both, and they were certainly not at their best.

Before she could think her next course of action, Adam swung his sword.

Blake closed her eyes, ready for the end, but a familiar crack of Thunder and flash of light broke her out of her trance.

She opened her eyes to see Thor standing between Adam and them, his Hammer holding the sword at bay.

"Thor?" she heard Yang whisper, but no more.

"Blake, get out of here!" Thor grunted at her.

For a second she thought of staying to help him, but Yang was seriously hurt, and she was in no condition to help herself.

"Right." She said as she helped Yang to her feet, and started to make her escape.

Thor was strong, but Adam was a monster, she didn't know if he'd be able to handle him on his own. But she had to have faith in him, because if Thor couldn't stop him, then they were in for a world of trouble.

* * *

Adam broke off the lock and observed the newcomer. He'd heard of this man and student of unusual skill and power. But still just a student.

"You must be Thor, or should I say "The Mighty Thor." He stated in a condescending tone, using the boy's self-imposed title.

"And I'd say something similar back, but I'm afraid I don't know your name." He shot back at him.

"Adam Taurus, not that it's going to matter much to a dead man."

"You're right, you name isn't going to matter much once your dead."

Oh, the boy was confident. But he'd seen confidence before, what really mattered at the end of the day was who could kill who first. And he intended to be the killer in this situation.

* * *

Thor lunged forward, bringing his hammer down, but Adam blocked it with his sword. He didn't dodge of deflecting it, he outright blocked it.

Thor went wide eyed, that wasn't normal, most couldn't stand to the pure force of his attacks.

Adam shoved his hammer away and slashed at him, and Thor had to step back to avoid getting his head taken off.

Adam swiped at him again, this time he caught the blade with his hammer and shove him back. As Adam stumbled back, he called lightning into his hammer head and struck again, and again he was blocked, the electric current not even traveling down the blade.

Something was wrong, his attacked weren't have any effect. He jumped back and slammed his hammer into the ground, sending a miniature earthquake at Adam, hoping to break his footing.

But the White Fang leader jumped out of the way and to safety.

This time Thor fired a bolt of lightning at his target, and again he blocked, and the lighting dissipated.

That told him something, but the specifics, he couldn't be sure.

He'd cut through Yang Aura to sever her arm, despite her being relatively fresh. Did he have some sort of nullifying semblance that renders targets power less?

He couldn't be sure, but he needed end this somehow.

* * *

Adam was impressed with the boy's raw power. If it weren't for his semblance, he might have been in trouble, but this guy just kept attacking and bringing himself closer to his own defeat.

* * *

Thor was starting to feel the heat in his chest again, but he was barely aware of it. He wanted to kill this man, his rage was building and wanted to take his arm off, then the other, and both his legs, then leave him here to what ever fate would have him.

But his attacks weren't having any effect. He needed to think of something else. Otherwise, he'd just be hammering away at this man till Ragnarok.

Grinding his teeth, he shouted, "Adam Taurus, you will die by my hand." He shouted and lifted himself into the air with his hammer and semblance.

* * *

Adam watched as the boy shouted at him and then suddenly was in the air hovering, spinning his hammer over his head like a helicopter.

It took him a moment to realized what was going on, but the wind was picking up, and soon had reached hurricane force winds.

He'd read on this boy's semblance, he could control weather within a certain range of himself, but this scope was more than he'd ever been reported doing.

The wind was whipping debris around, and Adam had to duck to avoid getting hit.

Looking back at the boy, the disks on his vest and belt were glowing like hot embers.

Adam wondered for a moment what this meant, but was spared the need to wonder for long. A ball of fire flew towards him, which he blocked. It shattered like glass and fell to his feet.

Looking up he saw several more flying towards him. He blocked them all and soon began to realize they were giant balls of hail the boy had somehow lite on fire.

As he continued to block, he was starting to feel pressured by the sheer volume of the attack.

The hail, combined with the debris and sheer wind force was making this much harder to cope with, if he were going to end this, he'd have to do it soon.

* * *

Thor watched as Adam began to struggle, he was over whelmed but he sheer volume of the attack. Now was his chance, and likely his only opportunity. His chest and waist felt like it was on fire, he'd never pushed the gear this far before.

Throwing his hammer, and going along for the ride, he rocketed towards Adam. Charging the head of the hammer with lightning, he was a foot away from him,

and he side stepped him…

* * *

The action was sloppy compared to his normal movement, but it had done the trick.

Thor soared past him, missing him by as close as he'd ever been comfortable with. He could see it in the boy's eye, he was caught totally off guard.

But Adam took advantage of the opening, raised his sword brought it down.

He'd of taken his head if he'd been more prepared, but cutting him in half would kill him just as well.

But the boy was quicker than he thought, and rolled away, but not far enough to avoid a hit entirely.

* * *

Thor felt it in his left leg, above his knee, but several inches below his weaist. A hot sensation that burned all the way through his leg.

He hit the ground and rolled. He was hit, but he wasn't done, first thing first was to see how bad it was.

Looking down to see how badly he was cut, his blood ran cold. Looking down to where his left leg should have been, there was nothing at all.

Looking up, back towards Adam, he saw his severed leg lying between them, Adam advancing towards him.

"You are strong, but this the end." He heard him say as he walked towards him.

Thor tried to get to his knees, forgetting he now only had one and fell on his face.

Looking up, he saw Adam towering over him, sword raised.

As the blade came down, Thor used his hammer to pull himself out of the way of the blade, up and out of his reach.

He only partially succeeded, as the blade cut deep across his chest and to his hip bone. Sparks flew out of his chest and belt.

He had one last chance to win this.

Charging his equipment to its max, he flew towards the ground at top speed.

* * *

Adam was surprised at the boy vitality, most would be down for the count, but he kept fighting. It was almost a shame to kill him, almost.

But his sudden attack took him but surprise. He hit the ground hard, the force of an explosion, lifting Adam up off the ground.

At the same time, a massive bolt of lightning sprung from the hammer, which he just barely managed to block. But the sheer force of it lifted him into the air, at a speed he wouldn't have thought possible.

When the light dissipated and he looked around, he saw he was in the air, very high in the air.

Looking down he saw Thor rocketing at him, hammer pulling him towards him at tremendous speed. Lightning arcing off him and sparks flying off his chest.

As he neared him, Adam was sure he was going to be slam into him like a truck, but then something happened he would always count as one of his luckiest moments.

The vest shot out a shower of sparks, then exploded like a bundle of grenades. A secondary smaller explosion radiated from his waist, which could only be his belt.

Finally, the hammer head went off like a bomb, a flash of light completely blinding him for a moment, and when he could see again, he saw Thor falling to the earth, smoking, and burning like an aircraft that had been shot down.

* * *

Thor didn't realize what was happening at first. First was the sensation of pressure and heat on his torso, then a blinding flash in his right eye, then he blacked out for a moment.

After that, his whole body felt like it was on fire. He was falling. Was this a dream? The vision returning?

He hit the ground hard and felt something pierce him in several places. Looking into the sky, he knew this wasn't a vision or dream. Or rather it was his vision, and it had come to pass, he tried to cry out, but instead, he just coughed up a mouth full of blood.

This was the last thing he remembered before the darkness took him.

* * *

Yang came too on the landing pad, and it took her a moment to realize what had happened. She started to hyper ventilate, realizing what had happened.

A medic was with her and gave her an injection of something that made her heart rate drop.

"It's all right, we're taking care of you, just need you to keep calm, we'll have you to the hospital soon."

Looking around, she was looking for Blake and Thor, but neither was anywhere to be seen. She'd of panicked at that point if what ever the medic had given her hadn't been kicking in so well, and she started to fall asleep.

* * *

Blake made her way through the ruins of the school, Grimm was running rampant, but that wasn't what scared her the most.

She had spotted Adam making his way out of the area, apparently uninjured.

She went back to where she'd last seen Thor, and she didn't see any sign of him.

But she did find the handle of his hammer, burned and cracked in places.

Her heart sank at this. He couldn't be…could he? She examined the area, but found no sign of him, until she found something that made her stomach turn.

A human leg, it had Thor's pants and boot on in. This, combined with the hammer handle, and that she couldn't hear his yelling anywhere cemented it in her mind.

She felt tears burn her eyes, and she wiped them away. Why was it that the good hearted ones always went first? He wasn't weak or vulnerable, he was one of the strongest she'd ever seen.

But Adam had killed him.

She guessed he really wasn't the god of thunder, or Adam was truly the monster to slay him.

* * *

Weiss sat on the transport back home, her father not even looking at her. The entire incident was beyond a catastrophe, her school had fallen, her team was broken up. Blake was missing, Yang critically injured and Ruby in a coma.

Then there was the report of Thor, MIA, presumably KIA. Some had seen him fighting the White Fang leader of the attack. An explosion was reported in the area, and Adam Taurus was seen leaving the scene, while Thor hadn't been heard from since.

She loathed to admit it, but she found herself grieving from the stupid idiot. What was he thinking? The leader of the White Fang, why would he take such a fight by himself? Stupid fool, getting himself killed.

Tears stung her eye's, and she quickly wiped them away so her father couldn't see.

* * *

Ruby knocked on Yang door. "Yang, it's me."

She entered without any verbal permission.

Her sister was just staring out the window, not acknowledging her.

"It's over Ruby, Weiss and Blake are gone, they left us." Her sister said to her before she could say a word.

"Yang…"

"It's over Ruby, we lost."

Ruby wasn't to see her sister like this, she wanted to bolster her spirits somehow.

"But once Thor comes back" she started before her sister cut her off, shouting.

"He's dead Ruby! He's not coming back!"

Ruby felt like someone had punched her in the chest. Thor was dead? That couldn't be right, what could kill him?

"Yang, I'm not sure what you're saying."

She was cut off as Yang threw something at the wall next to her, making her jump. Something metal hit the wall and rolled to her feet. Picking it up to examining it, she recognized the handle of Thor's hammer, melted and cracked. She thought her heart had stopped.

"Someone sent that in the mail, with a letter with the facts, he's gone, Ruby. Him, Pyrrha, Penny, the strongest of us are all gone, what chance do we have." She said as her voice weakened.

Ruby started to back out of the room but saying one last thing to her sister. "Yang…I love you…"

Her sister didn't respond, and she left, feeling a level of despair she hadn't ever experienced.

* * *

Yang simply couldn't shake the depression that hung over her. Her team was gone, and even her little sister had set off on her own. Here she was, sitting a home, unable to move past the events of the Fall of Beacon.

But who could blame her? She'd been crippled, two of her close friend had been killed, and all of her team had left her behind.

Today, she was heading to the Patch hospital with her dad. He didn't tell her why, but she suspected it was for another check up on her physical and mental health.

She appreciated the concern, but frankly thought it was unwarranted. She wasn't going to get worse physically, she was healing as well as could be expected.

Mentally, however, she knew she had ways to go before she would be back to normal, and even than normal probably wouldn't ever be the same to her again.

Adam had taken her apart with literally no effort. He'd even taken down Thor, one of the strongest students she'd ever seen.

That thought brought a pang to her stomach. She was never going to hear him laugh again or watch him tease Weiss, or watch Ruby fawn over his weapons.

She wanted to cry in that moment, but forced the tears back. She hated showing weakness, it was why she didn't even look at Ruby when she came to see her after she had woken up. She didn't want to let her sister see the tears.

As they arrived, she followed her father in, and to her surprise, he went to the intensive care unit. That put her on edge.

"Yang, wait here for a minute, okay?"

She looked at her dad for a moment, now uncertain what was going on. But she responded with an "Alright."

Her dad walked down the hall and disappeared for a few minutes before he came back with a doctor.

"Miss Xiao Long, thank you for coming." The doctor said.

Yang was confused at this and looked to her father.

"Doctor, I didn't tell her, I didn't want her to get her hopes up."

The doctor nodded, but continued "We just need your help identifying a Jon Doe, we think you may know him."

"What, like a…body?" Yang felt her stomach turn at the idea.

"No, but he is comatose, and we are having a hard time tracking down his family."

"Okay…" she looked to her father for advice, he nodded.

She followed the doctor down the hall, her heart rate jumping through the roof.

"This young man here, do you know him?"

Yang looked into the room, and where her heart rate had been rocketing, it felt like it suddenly stopped.

"Thor?"

* * *

"So you know him?"

"Yes, we went to school together, what…what happened to him?"

Yang looked at Thor, but he was barely recognizable. His face and eyes were covered by bandages, and a ventilator was over his mouth.

But his right arm was gone and so was most of his left leg. Had Adam done that to him?

"He was found in the ruin of Beacon." The Doctor began "We don't know what caused his injuries, but his left leg appears of been severed by a sharp blade, and his right arms seems to of been torn off by an explosion. He's severely burned, as well, they cover around 60 percent of his body. His right eye has also been damaged past the point of recovery." The doctor said as flipped through his chart. "He'll be blind in his right eye from now on, and his left will experience at least some temporary blindness, possibly permanent."

"How…how long has he been here?"

"A few weeks, we've been taking in wounded for the fall for some time now, there aren't enough working facilities in the city to handle them them all."

Yang could describe the feeling in her chest. She thought he was dead, but here he was, gravely injured, but alive.

"Where will he go when he wakes up?"

"Well, we don't know at this point." Was all the doctor said at first "No family has come forward, and if that's the case, well, he may be on his own."

* * *

At first, all he knew was a pain, it covered his body. He tried to open his eyes, but something kept them from opening.

He tried to move, but his right arm and left leg were numb.

Then it started to come back to him. His leg. He reached down and felt nothing at all. Panic began to rush through him, and he reached over to grab his arm.

Again…nothing, nothing but pain.

His heart rate skyrocketed, and he started to try and get up, only for several persons to jump on him to keep him down.

He felt a prick in his neck and suddenly begun to calm down for no reason he could readily understand.

Then a voice spoke to him "Mr. Odinson, you need to relax, you're in a hospital, you need to calm down, you're alright."

He tried to take it easy, but he was still beyond upset "What happened to me?"

"You were hurt in the fall of Beacon Academy, but we are taking care of you, you're going to be alright" The voice assured him.

He was crippled and blind, how was he alright? He remembered the fight, Adam, and the fights conclusion.

He'd been crushed, thoroughly, by both his opponent and his own stupidity.

* * *

"Is he going to be alright!" Yang shouted as the nursing staff pilled on her friend, as he woke up in a rage.

"This is normal, he's confused to where he is and what is happening. He'll calm down in a moment."

And he did, but it was scary to see him in such a state.

After a few minutes, the nurse left him alone, and he sat up in his bed.

She watched him for a moment, then went into the room.

* * *

He heard a voice say his name "Thor?"

It was Yang.

"Yang?"

"Yeah, it's me, buddy, I'm here." He heard her pulled a chair up to the side of his bed.

"Tell me…how bad is it?" he asked.

She didn't answer right away, which told him it was bad.

"You…look good…I mean…yeah." she apparently didn't know how to responded.

"I need to get out of here." He said, sliding to the edge of his bed.

"Are you nuts?! Where are you going to go?"

He felt and hand on his shoulder, but she shrugged it off, trying to stand.

"Thor stop, you're going to hurt yourself!"

He tried to stand, but the pain forced him back down to the bed.

"How could it come to this?" he mumbled to himself.

"Thor…"

* * *

Yang didn't know what to do, Thor had no place to go, and couldn't fend for himself.

"Thor…" she thought, an idea coming to her "why don't you come to stay with me and my dad for a while? It would be better than staying here right?"

Thor sat silently for a while before responding "Where is Ruby?"

That caught her a bit off guard, but she didn't want to worry him "She's with friends right now, she'd safe, don't worry."

He didn't respond right away. "You'll get me out of here?"

"Yes!" she said, a tone of relief in her voice, he'd calmed down. "I just have to make sure it's alright with my Dad."

* * *

Her father agreed to let Thor stay with them pretty readily. She explained he was from and orphanage, had nowhere to go, and how he'd looked after Ruby at school, he'd agreed to bring him home.

Yang couldn't help but think of the way her dad had talked, like she was talking about a dog rather than a person, saying she could "keep him."

But later that day, Thor had been discharged, against medical advice, but he really didn't need to be there anymore.

Once they got home, Yang had to help Thor into Ruby's vacant room. With one leg and one arm, he couldn't actually walk on his own. He had a crutch, but it was still a hobbling movement when he tried to move on his own.

As she helped him to bed, he groaned in pain.

"You okay?"

"It just hurts…" he groaned in response.

"Well, the Doctor gave you these." She said pulling out a bottle of pills "I can give you one now, it'll help with the pain."

He just nodded, and holding the bottle in her left hand, she used her teeth to open it, and pull a pill out, and placing in in Thor's hand.

"You want something to drink with that?"

"Beer."

That she wasn't sure about, she didn't think he should be drinking with he medicine, but it didn't say no to it.

She could give him one, watered down beer, right?

"Sure, let me get that for you."

She poured a beer but watered it down, so it was mostly water and brought it to him. He downed it with the pill and quickly fell asleep.

She watched him sleep, and was struck by his drastic change in appearance. His long golden hair was burned off, now shortly cropped. His handsome features covered in burns and bandages. His torso was covered in bandages from the burns, shrapnel, and puncture injuries from the fall.

But his arm and leg, both were gone. It was sort of like looking in a mirror. Seeing someone who was so strong, rendered so helpless.

Did she look like that to others? Part of her said no, she wasn't nearly as badly hurt, but still, she wondered if that wasn't denial.

Could she really be in the same boat as Thor?

* * *

 **A/N: Okay, there it is, please Review!**


	6. Rebuilding

**A/N: Okay this chapter ended up a bit longer than I intended, but here it is.**

 **Also, I'd like to thank runelt99 for helping me with reviews pointing out mistakes I've made. It's really helped, and I thank you.**

 **Also, still looking for a Beta reader, if you're interested PM me.**

 **Also, if you've been reading, you'll noticed I've been struggle with a summery, if anyone has any suggestion to help improve it, please PM me.**

 **Well here's the next chapter.**

* * *

Chapter 5

* * *

Thor was not exactly a pleasant house guest. Well, he wasn't pleasant all the time was more accurate. When he was in pain and needed his medication, he was irritable and short tempered. He wanted alcohol with it too, and Yang wasn't usually of a mind to provide it. She sometimes gave him watered down beer, but never anything harder, which he never seemed to notice. If he was in enough pain.

But he wasn't healing as fast as he should of, and that was scary to her. His Aura wasn't healing him like it should have. She'd heard of people having their Aura "turn off.", After a traumatic experience. She'd never seen it happen herself, and frankly didn't really understand how it was supposed to work. But Aura was a reflection of the soul, and if it wasn't working, then that was a sign of a deeply hurt person, someone hurt in more ways than could ever be seen with the naked eye.

She'd known Thor long enough to tell he was deeply disturbed by what had happened, although he had yet to divulge the specifics of his fight with Adam, and she wasn't sure if he ever would.

Just thinking about the man made her own injury tingle. Gripping it, she couldn't help but think of the dreams and was now certain this is what it was all about. The pain in her arm was too familiar to ignore, and the sheer disaster of the whole ordeal had been on the scale of what they had dreamt about.

And all the preparation had been for nothing, it all still came crashing down around their heads. That scared her, did it mean that fate was unavoidable? Or had they all just not tried hard enough to change it. Neither was a pleasant thought.

Thor had just taken his medication and was sleeping now, but that didn't bring her any sense of peace. She couldn't shake the feeling that this was partially her fault. She wasn't about to take full responsibility, Thor was still responsible for his own actions, but he'd come to save her and Blake.

She didn't know what would have happened if he hadn't shown up, but he'd still put himself between them, and danger.

But his spirit was broken now, there was no other way to explain it. How else would his Aura shutting down of occurred?

She'd seen some gruesome injuries before, both in person and in the many examples of failed hunters that her schooling had always taken pains to show her, to make sure she knew the danger of what she was getting into.

Thor wasn't the worst injury she'd ever seen, but he was up there with the people she'd seen with that scale of damage and come out alive.

What was worse, he didn't get treatment right away, which is what was really needed. The doctor had told them he wasn't found til maybe a day after he was hurt. A whole day laying on the ground, impaled on rebar.

Ironically, the fact he was so badly burned may have saved his life, many of his injuries were burned shut, not all, but it kept him from bleeding out.

But he wasn't ever going to be the same again. She knew what that felt like, if to a lesser degree. She'd lost her arm and her team, she didn't think she'd ever be the same again.

Thor, on the other hand, had been mutilated, the missing arm, leg and eye aside, the dozens of cuts, burns and three holes in his chest and stomach. His physical capacity may never return, and even with prosthetic, she didn't know if his eye could be fixed or replaced.

But what really bothered her was he didn't seem to want to get better. He rarely got out of bed, wasn't eating anywhere near what he used to, and spent most of his days in an either a drug induced haze or in a drunken stupor.

She didn't know where he was getting the Alchohol, she wasn't bringing it in, and her father wasn't either, or at least that's what he said, and she believed him.

In the time he'd been here, he hadn't spoken much, and she hadn't pressed him. But he wasn't sleeping well, that she was sure of. She could hear him at night, rolling in his bed. One time she'd ever heard him scream something she couldn't understand, and she and her father came rushing in to check on him.

They found him soaked to the bone with sweat, and maybe something that wasn't sweat. It was a mark of how scared he'd been that he wasn't the least bit embarrassed by the event. He had reached blindly out to grab either herself and her father, seeking some sort of human contact.

She wanted to reach out to him, but her father got to him first, putting a hand on his shoulder.

That seemed to bring him back to reality, and his tension noticeably dropped.

Yang knew what type of dreams he was having, she'd had them herself, but she hadn't reacted nearly as dramatically as he had.

She was shaken by her experience, but he'd been destroyed.

It was one of the hardest things she'd ever seen, to see someone she had thought was so strong brought so low. The closest thing she'd ever seen was her dad's reaction after her step-mom had died, but even he continued to function in such a manner, even if he'd become like a ghost for that time between her death and when he came out of the stupor.

Thor was more like a husk than a person now, and she really wanted him to…if not return to normal, at least start to function on his own. But more than that, she wanted to go find her sister, but her guilt wouldn't let her leave him like this, not knowing if he was getting better.

And she wanted him to come with her, when he was on his game, he was one of the best, and he'd be an enormous help on the journey.

But she was getting ahead of herself, she needed to get her own issues in order before that was going to be a possibility.

* * *

He didn't sleep well anymore, the dreams were too terrible. Not his fight with Adam, he'd seen too many battles for that to shake him. No these were more like the visions, but he knew they weren't prophetic, just his mind. Trying to cope with what had happened to him.

He'd done far more damage to himself than Adam had, and mutilated himself, and he kept reliving that moment in his dreams. If it had just been that, he might be able to cope, but he kept having vivid dreams where his friends, old and new, were being brutally dispatched by some unknown terror, and he was unable to even move, just watch.

And these dreams were utterly visceral, he could see all the gore and terror in their faces as they were dismembered by the shapeless shadow of terror that cut through them with no effort. What was worse was that he could hear the scream will into his waking hours, they echoed in his ears.

And the smell, the smell of blood and burning flesh, hair, clothing, metal, and plastic crept into his dreams and never seemed to leave him until after he took his medicine or had a drink.

The fact that he couldn't see made the dreams worse, the only images he'd seen in weeks was the horrific images he'd been dreaming about, and he had nothing to drive them out of his mind.

The first time he'd had the dreams, he thought it was another vision, but it's repeated occurrence every night he'd tried to sleep unaided, convinced him this wasn't the case. What was more, they didn't feel like a vision, they always had a distinct feeling that told the one who experienced they were real. That was part of the reason why Team RWBY had believed him when he explained it to them.

Finally, there was the fact that if he drank enough with his medication, he didn't dream at all. The visions couldn't be stopped, no matter what you did, if they were going to come, they would come.

That was a concerning habit he was developing, mixing pain killers with drink. That wasn't safe, but it was all he had to cope with the nightmares right now. It wasn't healthy, at all, but he didn't have anyone he could talk to.

Oh, there were people to talk to, but no one who could understand what he really needed to talk about. They could know what he'd been through physically, but emotionally, they couldn't begin to comprehend how far he had fallen. His crushing loneliness, both before the fall of Beacon and after. Dreams of the empty school, where even animals were gone, leaving only a phantom voice.

Alone, that's what he was, and now he was a cripple. His power had disappeared, his weapons, destroyed. He thought back to his actual weapon, buried in the ground for near three years now.

What was he doing wrong? It hadn't come to his aid when he needed it most when he almost died. Why was he still not worthy? What was he missing?

Was it possible, that this time, it wasn't a test? Was he just being punished now? But why? He couldn't even remember what he'd done to deserve this, he actually couldn't even remember the days before his banishment.

But that was how his father was, he'd leave you on your own to figure it out, so you would learn what ever lesson there was to teach.

Well, he hadn't even learned the lessons his teachers here had tried to instill in him. He ignored the warnings about his equipment, and he'd paid that price. He still hadn't learned to think first, to take a moment when he was upset or excited to stop and breathe. When his temper was up, he rushed in like a bull to just crush what was in front of him.

And it had blown up in his face, in the most literal way possible. His pigheadedness cost him an arm and his sight. The doctors said his eye sight may return in his left eye, but his right was beyond repair.

As he brooded on his own mistakes, he could have sworn he felt an itch on the bottom his foot, his left foot, the one he knew was no longer there. He'd heard of this, phantom limbs, where your mind thought you still had a missing body part.

He didn't know how long this would persist, but he really didn't know if it was the sort of thing that ever went away.

But that wasn't all that was on his mind. He wasn't healing like he should. The progress was on par with an average human like he didn't have any Aura to speak of, which wasn't right. He had Aura, he could feel it at his core. But it wasn't manifesting itself in any way. He hadn't tried to call his semblance, but he was certain that would cause more trouble than it was worth right now, in his condition, he would probably hurt himself.

What he wanted right now, was a drink. Reaching under his mattress, he found the bottle of bourbon he'd asked Qrow for before he departed. The Hunter had been reluctant at first to give it to him, but he could only suppose the man felt sorry for him, and he wasn't one to judge anyone on their drinking anyway.

As he pulled it out from his hiding place, he could hear what was left slosh around in the bottom of the bottle. He frowned, he was almost out and didn't have a way to get any more.

Taking a sip, he put the cap back in and slide it back under the mattress. Yang and her father were wondering where he was getting his drinks from, but because he almost never got out of bed, they hadn't been able to look under the mattress properly. The times he did leave it, he took the bottle with him so they wouldn't find it and take it.

Not that it was going to matter much in a few more days, he'd be out by then, and they couldn't take what was gone.

He felt like a prisoner in a way, having to hide contraband, unable to leave with out permission or help.

But the fact was, he had nowhere to go, no one to help him and was unable to take care of himself properly. He couldn't even see, and to walk to the bathroom was a lesson in agony.

He reached up to touch the bandages over his eyes, wondering if even his left eye would see again.

As he ran his fingers along the bottom of the bandages, he felt his beard. Running his hand over his mouth and jaw line, he felt the hair had grown in over the weeks. He hadn't been thinking of that, he'd honestly thought that he was too severely burn for hair to even grow on his head anymore.

Feeling around more, he found that he was partially right. The right side of his face was still bare, his facial hair and the hair on his head wasn't growing in on that side.

But he needed to shave, now that he felt it, he was feeling dirty for not keeping in trimmed, and he was finding it impossible to forget now.

He scooted over to the edge of his bed, grabbed his crutch and with a great effort, hauled himself to his one leg, and started to thump he was across the room to the door and bathroom.

* * *

"What's wrong with his Aura though dad? It can't just disappear can it?"

Taiyang looked at his daughter thoughtfully before responding. "No, it can't, but it possible it's psychosomatic."

"He's not crazy dad."

He sighed at this "No, what I mean is he's unknowingly making it not work for himself."

"What? Why would he do that to himself?" Yang asked, confusion still playing across her face.

"He wouldn't, but what he went through was traumatizing. I'm not a doctor, but it may be he's scared of returning to the field."

"What?!" Yang scoffed at the idea "You don't know Thor, he loves to fight."

Taiyang didn't contradict his daughter on this because it was true, he didn't know the young man all that well. But he's seen the battlefield before and how it affected people.

His line of thought was broken as he heard a crashing sound and someone cursing from the bathroom.

Of course, there was only one other person in the house right now.

He didn't have to move, as Yang went to investigate the source of the noise.

* * *

Yang burst into the bathroom shouting "What the hell are you doing?"

The sight that greeted her was Thor, bracing himself over the sink with his one arm, trying to balance on his left leg.

"I wanted to shave, but I'm finding it…difficult." He muttered.

"Why wouldn't you just ask for help you numbskull!" she near shouted.

"I don't need to be treated like an invalid!" he shot back.

Huffing, she marched over to him, grabbed him by his shoulder, and sat him down on the toilet.

"Hold still." She said and pumped lather onto his face right from the canister and then start spreading it with his hand.

Thor was so taken aback by the action, he didn't respond right away. It wasn't until he heard her say "Hold still." That he spoke again.

"You know what you're doing?"

She huffed at this before responding "I'm a girl Thor, I've probably done a lot more shaving than you have, now hold still, I don't want to cut you."

He sat there in silence while she did her work. She was quick about it and didn't even nick him.

"There, all done, now back to bed." She said as she got under his arm and lifted him up. He didn't fight her, but he seemed limp like he'd suddenly lost the energy to move.

She helped him back into bed and caught a whiff of the alcohol on his breath. She wanted to start in on him, about mixing his medication with booze, but ultimately decided not to. It hadn't done her any good before, and there was no fight in him, he'd just ignore her until he fell asleep.

She opted instead to ask him what he was thinking trying to move around with out help.

"Why didn't you ask for help?"

He didn't respond, just sat there quietly.

"It's not a sign of weakness to need help once in a while Thor."

Still no response, but she wasn't going to leave until she got something out of him, so she pulled up a chair and sat next to his bed and waited.

This was an issue she knew they both had incredibly hard headed and stubborn as an ox. When two people like that got into a confrontation, it usually didn't end well.

But regardless, she sat there, waiting for him to talk.

It was maybe a half hour before he said anything.

"How have I come to this?"

Yang had honestly been starting to zone out at this point, but she still caught the question. "What are you talking about?" although she had a good idea of what he meant.

"I was once one of the strongest warriors in the world, now…Now I can't even shave myself. I need help walking more than a few meters, and I can even see the world around me, how did this happen?"

She could tell he wasn't actually talking to her, just thinking out loud. "Thor, you didn't do anything wrong, it was all Adam, he's a monster…" she began but was cut off by him slamming him first into the wall, with surprising strength given his condition, though he noticeably winced from the out burst.

"No, he didn't!" He shouted, and this statement just confused Yang, what did he mean? Was there someone else who'd fought against him along side Adam? "I did this to myself, I got overconfident, and I blew myself up, I ignored all the warnings, pushed it too far and destroyed myself!"

"What are you talking about? I saw you get into a fight with Adam, your leg…"

"He did that!" He hissed at her "But the rest…I was brought down by equipment failure!" he shouted.

Yang realized this was the first time he'd actually talked about the fight, but he wasn't very clear, this outburst didn't really convey what happened all that well, but she thought she was getting the necessary picture.

"You mean…your equipment what…just exploded?" She could see him grinding his teeth, and was certain she was right. "How? I mean, why would it do that?"

He waited a few minutes before he actually gave her response "I pushed it past its limit. I've know for a while it needed to be tweaked, but I just never did it. Then it started to over heat, then Adam damaged it, and tried to stupidly finish him off, it was too much for the system to handle and it overloaded." He said as his voice got quieter and quieter in his shame.

So that's why he'd been burned and covered in shrapnel. She'd been wondering why he was injured the way he was, but this explained it. He'd gotten hot headed and rushed in with out thinking, just like she had.

"Why though?" she whispered to him

"Why what." He mumbled out.

"Why push it that far? You knew it wasn't safe right?"

He didn't answer, he just sat there quietly.

She thought he was done talking and made to stand up, but his voice cut the silence.

"For you and Blake, to keep him away from you."

"We were safe Thor, you didn't have to push it like you did, you could have just held him off…"

"He took your arm, I wanted his head."

She thought something like that was going on, he was after revenge. And it had backfired.

"Thor, I don't need you to avenge me, once I'm better, I'm gonna do it for my self." She said sternly, but not unkindly. "But what I can use your help with is finding my sister."

Thor didn't give many signs of perking up at this, but Yang thought she saw his head turn up a little at it.

"She went off with Jaune, Ren, and Nora, doing God knows what. I'm going after her once I'm back to full health, and I want you to come with me, but if you don't get your shit together, I'm leaving you here to wallow in your own self-pity."

It was a bit harsh, but she had the feeling Thor didn't like his truths sugar coated. She stood and turned to leave the room "Make up your mind quick if you want to get better or not."

And with that, she left the room.

* * *

That night Yang couldn't sleep. She had too much on her mind, and what was worse, she had an itch in her right elbow. Given she no longer had one, that made it all the most frustrating.

As she lay awake, she thought she heard something coming from Ruby's room. At first, she ignored it, but then. She heard a loud "THUD," and jumped out of bed to investigate.

Running into the hall, and opening the door to Ruby room, she saw Thor on the ground struggling to get the bed sheets from him.

She ran over to help him, but he was still fighting and flailing with his arm and leg.

She tried to help him, but as soon as she got close, he started swinging at her.

"Thor, it's me! It's Yang!" She shouted at him, he was soaked again, and as he calmed down, she peeled the sheets off him. His shirt stuck to him like he'd been in the down pour for hours, what hair was left on his head stuck together.

Another Nightmare, she knew that much. He was panting and had back himself up against he bed. Even without his eye's showing the look of terror was evident on his face.

She reached down and touched his shoulder, which he violently jerked away from. "Thor it's me, calm down, I'm here, nothing is going to happen."

"Yang?"

"Yeah, it's me. Can you hold on for a minute? I'm gonna run and grab something, will you be alright on your own for a minute?"

He nodded in response, and she ran out of the bedroom to the kitchen.

* * *

The quiet was crushing him as he sat on the floor alone. The dream was much more vivid than normal, he hadn't taken a drink before going to sleep, trying to save what little he had. But this had been bad, one of the worst yet.

His heart jumped as he heard someone come running back, only to realize it was Yang.

He heard the splash of water and then felt something cold against his forehead. It took him a moment to realize she'd come back with a wet rag and bucket of water, and she was wiping the sweat off of him.

"I'm gonna take your shirt off okay?" she said in a soft tone, apparently trying to keep him calm. He didn't say anything, just nodded.

He felt his t-shirt sticking to him as she peeled it off, he was thoroughly soaked. He jumped as the cold cloth started wiping around his bandages. But it felt good, cooling and soothing.

"Alright, that should help for tonight, but you're gonna need to get a proper bath tomorrow, you're starting to smell really ripe."

He hadn't given his personal hygiene much thought this whole time, and he began to feel a little embarrassed.

"Well, we'll figure that out tomorrow." She said as she stood to leave.

His hand shot out to grab her wrist to stop her"Where are you going?"

She hesitated for a bit "I was gonna toss this water, get you into bed, then go back to sleep."

"Please…don't leave me alone."

* * *

His tone of voice scared her. He was an entirely different person now, all his normal confidence was gone, the bravado vanished like a puff of smoke after the fall of Beacon.

She almost couldn't reconcile the man he used to be with the man he was now.

But she felt pity for him, and pulled her wrist from his hand, only to grasp his hand in turn. "I'll stay right here."

She helped him into his bed and lay him down, never letting go of his hand.

She sat on the edge of the bed and waited for him to go to sleep.

Once she was sure he was asleep, she let go of his hand to go to her own bed. As she reached the door, she heard whimpering and turned around to look Thor in the face. He was starting to sweat again.

She grabbed his hand and whispered in his ear. "It's alright, I'm still here."

She hadn't expected that to do anything, but she'd be damned if it didn't seem to calm him down.

She'd read about this sort of thing, people who suffered from PTSD calming in their sleep with someone near them, or something like a comfort animal.

As she Climbed into the bed, she remembered doing this for Ruby when she had nightmares. Sitting, so her back was flushed against the headboard, she played Thor's head on her chest, which was supposed to be soothing, something about a human heart beat was calming to people.

Thor stayed quiet and slept, and she tried to get comfortable, which was a challenge. She wasn't in a good position, and Thor smelled really strongly. But she could just leave him to suffer from these nightmares, so she'd tough it out, for tonight at least.

* * *

'Thump Thump, Thump Thump, Thump Thump.' That was all he heard as he awoke from the haze of sleep, a steady beating.

He rose and realized someone was in bed with him. It took him a moment for him to remember what happened the night before, the nightmare, Yang coming in, his begging, to not be left alone.

He slid to the edge of the bed and put his face in his hand. He was pathetic, a mere dream rendering him little more than a child.

"Thor?" he heard Yang voice from behind him.

"Yes?" he responded quietly.

"Do you remember what we talked about last night?"

He didn't answer right away, but eventually said "Remind me."

"You need a bath, let's go." She said, and before she could stop her, she hooked herself under his arm and carried him to the bathroom.

"What are you going to bath me now?" he said indignantly.

She laughed at this "No, but I'm going to get you started." She said as they entered the bathroom and she sat him down on the toilet.

He heard the water running, and the tub filling up. It stopped suddenly, and he heard something plop down in the shallow water.

"Okay, I got some water in the tub, but I put a medical chair in there for you to sit on. The shower nozzle is a hose head so you can use it to clean yourself off. But first, we need to take those bandages off, they need to be redressed anyway, we'll do it once you are done."

* * *

She could tell he didn't like the idea of her seeing him without the bandages on, to bare his injuries to the world.

She knew he wasn't shy about his body, but all his stitches and burns were somehow incredibly embarrassing to him, but he didn't fight her on it.

They stuck to his skin as he peeled the wrappings off, and for the first time, she saw the extent of his injuries, cuts, burns and three incredibly nasty puncture marks in his chest and stomach.

Finally, all that was left was the wrappings in his head. As she reached up to take it off, he grabbed her wrist.

For a moment, If he could see, they'd be looking each other dead in the eye. "Thor, it has to come off."

He didn't respond but let go of her hand, and let her take it off.

She wasn't prepared to see what she saw. A long laceration ran from his brow down to his mid cheek, cutting his eye in half. The socket looked like a bundle of cuts and burns, looking like raw hamburger.

The rest of the area was covered in a combination of long narrow cuts and pitted holes. His left eye was swollen shut and looked like his eye socket had been broken.

But she didn't make a sound, she didn't want to alarm him. All his bandages were off, and he sat before her in his underwear, which she had seen before, but he seems so much more exposed now.

"Come on." She said, helping him up to get him into the tub.

Lowering him into the chair, which was more of a stool really, so he sat just above the water, letting his leg soak in it.

"Here." She handed him the shower head and set a bar of soap in his lap. "The trigger on the head will start the water flow and the soaps in your lap. I'll leave you to it."

With that, she stood up to leave and give him his privacy.

"Oh, I'd take my underwear off If I were you, just a tip. When you're ready to get out, bang on the floor three times. The drain is right in front of you, and I left a towel next to the tub for you."

* * *

Thor washed himself as best he could with one arm, and while it wasn't an easy task, it felt good. Both to finally be clean, and to be able to do it himself.

After finding the bar of soap, he started to lather it up and scrub himself with a wash cloth. Fumbling in his private darkness, he found the shower head and rinsed himself off. The sensation felt good, but over his injuries, it also felt uncomfortable. It was an odd numb sensation over his cuts, and his burns felt hot again as the water passed over his skin.

The steam was relaxing, and the water surrounding his legs was comforting. He hadn't taken that long to clean himself, he didn't have to spend as much time washing his hair as he would of normally, it was still extremely short even in the areas where it had started to grow back in.

But he didn't want to get out yet, it was warm and comfortable here, and he didn't have anything else to do today... or any other day.

So he sat back, and let his mind wander. He thought of how he was going to get out of the tub, who would come to help him and when he'd get this chance again to get clean. He didn't mind being dirty after a fight or when in the wilderness, but just sitting around doing nothing, getting filthy, felt shameful in a way, like he was saying he didn't care.

But, that was how he felt wasn't it? He was a useless lump right now, and even if he ever made a full recovery, or what that amounted to for him now, he'd at best be half as strong as he was before the fight with Adam.

He could get prosthetics, but those weren't the same as a flesh and blood arm, not matter what they said. It would be a foreign object on his body.

Not to mention he would be blind in his right eye from now on. The Doctors and suggest a prosthetic for that as well, but unlike arm or leg replacement, they couldn't just be put on, he'd need to have it surgically implanted, and he wasn't going to let himself be put under and cut open.

As he thought, he absent mindedly brought his hand up to where his right eye had been and felt the mangled mess that was left. He didn't know if it was the shrapnel or the force of the blast that had so severely damaged his eye, but he guessed it was the shrapnel.

Suddenly finding himself incredibly anxious, he pulled the plug of the tub, and let the shallow water drain out.

He reached around for the towel that had been left for him and dried himself off as quickly as he could, sometimes being too rough on his still healing injuries. But he felt the need to suddenly leave the room, and he didn't have a clue as to why he felt the need to so suddenly or so sharply.

He pulled the clothes in after the towel and tried to dress, but only managed to his underwear on and the t-shirt.

He took his leg and stamped on the floor of the tub three times, hard, much harder than he needed to.

He waited for a minute, then two, then ten. Before long he lost track of time he was attempting to keep and started to panic.

'How long was it now? An hour? Two? More?" was all he could think. He hauled himself out of the tub and started to crawl to the door, dragging his burns and cuts along the floor. He felt all the injuries screaming a railing against the treatment, but he needs to escape.

He got to the door and he was realized to find that as he touched it, it was open a crack, not latched shut. He pulled it open and flopped out into the hall. Bracing his back against the wall, he pushed himself with his leg up the wall into a standing position.

Using his arm to brace himself he started to make his way down the hall.

"Yang?!" he called and waited for a response. There was none. "Mr. Xiao Long?!"

Again, no response. His heart rate was going a mile a minute. Had they left him here? No, that wasn't in their nature, when ever both were going to be out, they'd tell him, and they were never gone for long.

Thumping down the hall on his one leg, using the wall to keep him standing, he suddenly felt the floor fall out from under him.

He had forgotten in his panic about the stairs. He'd never seen them, of course, being blind from the time he came into the house, but he heard them being used. But he hadn't thought of them because he'd only used them to get upstairs once, and he has drugged out of his mind then.

But the fall was taking too long, why was he still in the air. No sooner than he thought this…

He was shaking, no that wasn't right, someone was shaking him.

In his blind state, he hadn't even realized he was being woken up.

"Thor, wake you're dreaming again!" Yang's voice rang in his ear.

As the fog of the dream was shaken off, he realized he was still sitting in the tub. He also realized that he'd been screaming during his dream fall, and heard the last notes of it as he came back to reality.

He was wet, not from sweat this time, but from his bath. The water around his feet was still warm, meaning he hadn't been out that long.

"You okay?" Yang's voice was hesitant but firm in its own way, reassuring in fact.

"Just, another bad dream." He said in a mumble. Which was true, it was bad, he was alone and abandoned again, but this one was weird. In the dreams he'd been having, he could see again, this one blended so perfectly with his real activities, he'd dreamt blind.

That was scary in its own way, but he didn't need to burden anyone else with his problems.

He also realized he was totally naked in from of Yang, and found he didn't care in the least. He was so scared that it seemed totally inconsequential. They were getting so real that they were blending between the sleeping and waking world.

If this trend continued, how would he ever know the dreams from reality? Was he losing his mind? He didn't know if he was but was sure that if things continued on as they had, he would.

* * *

Yang draped the towel over his shoulders, both to dry him off and give him some semblance of privacy. If it weren't for the fact he was in such distress all the time and was recovering so horribly, she might have been embarrassed walking in on a friend in the middle of a bath, well a male friend at least.

But right now, it felt more like she was a nurse and he was a patient. She hated the comparison, but it was the closest thing to what their relationship was now, more patient and caregiver rather than friends.

"Here, I'll help you up." She said as she got under his arm and lifted him up, not bothering to help him get dressed, but walking him to his room.

She helped him to bed and covered him with a blanket while looking away to preserve what little privacy he had.

"I'll grab your clothes, just hold on for a minute, okay?"

He didn't verbally answer her, but nodded, his jaw clenched so tightly she wondered how he hadn't broken his teeth yet.

Rushing out, she went to get his clothes.

* * *

Taiyang knew Thor wasn't getting better, not like he should anyway. His mental and emotional injuries weren't something he could just get over. But physically, he just wasn't where he should be.

Even as severe as it was, with Aura, he should have been up and around by now, ready for prosthetics.

Yang was there already and was miles ahead of him. They had kept that a secret, not wanting Thor to get discouraged, but Yang was frankly thriving now.

He had a suspicion as to why she'd taken such a sudden turn for the better. Thor being around had woken her innate desire to help others. She'd done it when Rose had died and taken care of Ruby. She may be hot headed and quick to fight, but she was also capable of great compassion and was naturally nurturing. Thor was in such a sorry state, he'd helped her go back to that mind set.

Which was perfect for Yang, but Thor was still nearly helpless. Taiyang didn't know the boy all that well, the time he'd spent with him probably wasn't a great indication of his real self. But all reports said he was strong, physically anyway, in a fight. But he had taken his loss harder than almost anyone else he'd ever seen, he'd never seen someone shut off their aura.

That problem was, he was certain, psychosomatic. Letting him work through it wasn't working, he needed a kick in the pants to jump start him.

* * *

"Dad, how come I've never heard of this place?"

"It's not a secret or anything, it's just that typically only full-time Hunters need it."

"So this place." Yang said looking at the brochure "really helps stimulate Aura in hunters?"

"Yup, something in the hot springs helps with Aura recovery, we don't know what it is, but it works."

Yang didn't think that was right, how could she not of heard of this? Especially if it was here on Patch? She knew that there were some hot spring resorts in the mountains regions, but one that helped recover Aura? She'd of heard about it, right?

"You think this will fix his Aura problem?"

"I know it will, and once he get's that squared away, he'll be up in no time," Taiyang said with confidence.

Yang was skeptical, but at this point, she'd try anything to get him up and going. Because if wasn't at least starting to show signs of getting better like he should, within the next two or three days. She'd leave without him. She didn't want to, but she couldn't put it off much longer with no sign of progress on his part.

"Okay, I'll take him up there tonight."

* * *

As Yang walked off to Thor's room, Taiyang breathed a sigh of relief. He thought she'd figured him out there for a second.

The story about the Aura stimulation hot spring was total bull spit. He'd come up with the idea while watching a documentary on legends, and one was about spring that restored health and vitality.

He'd had a friend fabricate the brochure, well not completely, there was a spring hotel there, but he needed it modified to bolster his story.

If his hunch about Thor suppressing his own aura with knowing it was right, then he believed he could get him to jump start himself with the story.

Granted, he didn't like tricking Yang, but it if he didn't trick her, then she'd have to lie to Thor, and he didn't like the idea of compromising her integrity like that.

Worse case, it didn't work, and they were back at square one, only now he'd have to deal with a very pissed off daughter. But hell, he'd dealt with that before.

* * *

"So this place will help me recover?"

"That's what it says, and my dad thinks this will get you Aura jump started and get you healing quickly like you're supposed to be."

"Let's go, let's go now," Thor said in the most excited voice he'd used since he woken up after the fall. He'd seen these type of springs before, how they healed varied from one to the next, but he was by no means unfamiliar with the type.

"Okay, hold on second." Yang said a bit defensively "We'll go, my dad booked a private cabin for you already, but we won't be leaving until tonight. We got to get packed and everything."

Thor slumped a little at this, but his internal excitement was overwhelming. At last, he'd be able to see the world again.

* * *

That night, they were packed and ready to go, Thor was sitting in the back seat of the car, waiting. Yang finished talking to her father about the specifics of the where they were going and then climbed into the car herself.

She could drive one handed, and while she didn't prefer to, he lest her prosthetic arm behind, hoping this would be the last time she'd need to hide it from Thor. Granted, given he couldn't see, she could probably have gotten away with it, but he was so full of surprises, she didn't want to risk him hearing or touching it.

Heading off into the night, she found herself feeling something she hadn't felt in a while.

Hope.

* * *

The Cabin, she could see as they approached, was a single story building. The vapor rising behind it in the mood light was a clear indication of the small, but private, hot spring it had behind it. That's what this place prided itself on, the numerous smaller hot springs that let the renters have an individual experience.

That seemed a bit too convenient to her, that when they needed a private area for Thor, it just so happened to be the one that could heal him?

Shaking her head, she pulled up the cabin and parked the car.

"We're here." She said to Thor, who had been extremely quiet the whole ride. She suspected that, despite his hope, this scared him too. The idea it might not work, and the disappointment that would follow were scary enough to her, she couldn't imagine what he was going through. "I'll help you in, then I'll unload the bags."

He nodded at this, and she got out and opened his door, and did the familiar underarm maneuver to get him in.

The inside of the cabin was furnished nicely, if modestly. Their was only one bedroom, and she helped Thor to it, where she layed him down on the bed.

Looking around the open floor plan, she took in the cabin. The living room and kitchen were open with no barriers, with an island counter functioning the only separation between the two.

She then went back to the car and unloaded their luggage. They had enough clothes and toiletries to last them the four days they were staying, which shouldn't have been hard to carry. But minus one arm, she found it a bit cumbersome.

But after a few minutes, she managed to get everything in. Sighing, she looked at the clock, and it was just past 11:30. That was much later than she thought it would have been when they left, but there it was.

She went into the bedroom and found Thor sitting on the edge of the bed. "You want to try and get in tonight, or do you want to wait until morning."

His face told her he wanted to get right to it, but he hesitated before answering. "It's late, we'll do it tomorrow."

She was a bit relieved at this decision. She was tired and really want to get some sleep. "Okay, we'll try it the first thing in the morning, get some sleep, good night Thor."

"Goodnight Yang."

With that, she went to the couch and plopped down. "This is really comfortable for a couch, " was the last thing she thought as she faded off to sleep.

* * *

Yang didn't know what had woken her up at first, but a quick look at the clock told her she'd be asleep for less than an hour.

Standing up, she rubbed her eyes. "What the hell?" she looked around for something that may have woken her up, but didn't see anything.

That is, until she looked out the back door, and saw Thor sitting in the hot spring. With a bottle of something in his hand.

* * *

"You're gonna wait till tomorrow huh?" she said as she approached the hot spring.

"It's tomorrow right?"

He was technically right, it was past midnight, but how he knew that when he couldn't see, she didn't know.

He looked totally at ease, with a bottle of champagne in his hand, which she had no clue where he got that from, but left it alone for now.

His bandages were all off and was stark naked. Looking away with a flush in her cheeks she spoke again "You know you aren't supposed to drink in hot water like that right?"

He just took another sip.

"Where did you get that anyway?"

"In the refrigerator, found that thing by mistake as I hobbled my way out here."

She sighed at this, of course, he did. She didn't know if this place stocked by the owners, but if it did, she bet there was an up-charge on anything they used.

She was still stressed from the drive and getting here, but now she didn't feel like she could sleep.

She looked at the spring, and it looked so welcoming.

"Screw it." She said out loud and stripped down to her birthday suit and climbed in. Thor couldn't see anyway, and she wanted to relax a bit herself. "Give me that." She said to take the bottle from Thor and taking a long drink of it herself. She knew this wasn't advisable, but her aura would deal with the issues anyway, she might as well have a little bit of fun.

* * *

Thor didn't exactly feel any healing properties of the spring, not overtly anyway. But in the water, he felt a calm peace he hadn't felt in a while wash over him. The Alcohol helped, he was sure, but this felt purer, more natural.

He heard Yang moving in the water, and he was frankly glad for the company. He didn't want to ruin her sleep, but he didn't want to put off this any more than he had to. He needed to get better yesterday.

They sat there for a while in a peaceful silence, and Thor started to feel a bit light headed. The alcohol and hot water were starting to affect him, he felt so…loose.

"Yang…" he started to say but trailed off.

"Yes?" she stated in a tone that made him think she may be feeling the effect as well.

"Do you believe in fate?"

* * *

The question caught her a bit off guard, it didn't seem in his character. But she answered regardless.

"I guess, a bit, but I think we make out own fate." She responded.

"What about the gods? Do you think they're out there? Watching us?"

That one made her uncomfortable. She remembered the book Blake had found what seemed like an eternity ago, she didn't want to follow this line of questioning, afraid it might reveal something about him she didn't want to know, that he was really crazy.

"I'm…not sure, I mean I guess they could be, there could be gods or a God, but I don't really think about it much."

"I believe they are out there." He said taking another long draft on the bottle. "Tell, me, have you ever heard of Odin?"

Despite the hot water and alcohol, she suddenly felt cold. She was going to find out if he was delusional mental patient or not in the next few minutes, like it or not.

"Is he a god?"

"King of the gods, he can see the future…like my father." He said. That made her feel better, the way he was wording it, it seemed like he had just adopted the persona.

"Is he your God?"

Thor didn't respond right away, but after a few moments of silence said "Yes. I feel like this has been a test from him."

That wasn't a comforting thought for her. Not so much what he said, but what it implied about his view on the world, that his god could treat him so harshly.

"What kind of test?" she asked hesitantly.

"I don't know." He answered quietly. After that, he sat in silence for a long time. Then he spoke again "But maybe…Knowing I don't know, is part it."

Yang could hear the sadness in his voice, no confusion, he just sounded like he accepted it.

"Thor…"

He looked at her, and she could swear it was like he could see her. He smiled though.

"It's alright Yang, I thought I knew what I was supposed to do, I choose my path, the one I was certain I needed to take, but that road lead me here."

The tone of his voice was so different from a moment ago, he sounded almost happy.

"I've let go of the need to know why."

* * *

As Thor worked through his thoughts out loud, he was starting to think he got why he was here. He was used to being taught lessons about humility, kindness, responsibility, sacrifice and so on. But he'd never once been forced to truly and fully live a mortal. Here was was now, mortal, a stronger than average one, but still mortal, despite showing everything his father praised in a man and warrior.

The only answer he could think to answer the question as to why he could regain his powers is he wasn't supposed to. He was to live as a mortal man.

Why, he had no idea why, but he didn't think he ever would know. So he'd let go of that question.

This all hit him like a ton of bricks as he sat in this hot water.

Why he didn't know, it was maybe the calming sensation and vapor of the water, but he just seemed to unlock a hidden door in his mind, and it seemed right.

Yang just looked confused, her eye's narrowed in confusion….

Wait? He could see her eye's?

* * *

Thor looked shocked for a moment, and he just stared at her.

"Thor, are you alright?"

"Your eyes, I've never noticed how kind they are before."

Her eye's? Wait.

"WHOA!" She shouted, covering herself up "You can see again!"

* * *

No, he couldn't, not exactly, just out of his left eye, and it was still a bit blurry, but it was a huge leap over where he'd been.

"Just out of this one." He said indicating his left eye. "It's still blurry."

"Still, Thor, I'm not wearing anything!"

That baffled him, he didn't tell her to strip down, and he hadn't asked for his sight to return now to all times.

"How is that my fault?"

* * *

Well it wasn't, he didn't have any control over it. But she had been skeptical this place would work, but there was some pretty substantial evidence it did.

Her sudden irritation faded with that realization. "Give me that." She reached to grab the bottle and took a big knock from it.

She felt at ease, over all really. That she'd been drinking in a hot spring probably had something to do with it, but really, the fact that Thor had shown some recovery overlapped any sense of embarrassment she might have felt.

"It's not like you haven't seen me naked before," Thor said, with a bit of his old self, carrying through in voice.

He was right in that regard, technically, but it wasn't like this situation, he'd been in the middle of a stressed induced dream, and she'd treated him more like a hospital patient than anything else.

"Not the same thing." She said in a much calmer tone and slumped against the side of the pool of water.

Thor did the same thing opposite her, looking at the sky. "I still can't see too well." He said while staring almost absent mindedly at the sky "Are the stars out tonight Yang?"

She was a bit taken aback at the odd request but looked up none the less. "Yes, they are." She looked at him as he stared up. "Why?" she asked, but frankly didn't care if she got an answer at this point, she felt a pretty good buzz now from the champagne.

"I just feel better know they are out, I've always felt like if the stars were shining, someone somewhere was looking out for me."

That and taking another draft from the champagne was the last thing he remembered from that night.

* * *

Thor woke up the next day in his bed and didn't know how he'd gotten there. But he was awakened by the sunlight, for the first time in months, he could tell if the sun was up or not.

Granted, how his head felt, he wished for a moment he couldn't. He didn't know how much he and drank, but it was clearly more than he should have, and the hot water hadn't helped.

But for the first time, he could really see the scope of the damage to his body.

His left leg was cleanly severed, and the wound was by far the most appropriately treated. But the burns and cuts on his torso were much more ragged, not as clean. The three large golf ball size injuries were from the rebar he'd landed on.

Trying to look at his right shoulder, he couldn't get a good look. His right eye was gone, and he just couldn't get a look.

Grabbing his crutch, he hopped over to the bath room and braced himself against the door to flip the light on.

He looked in the mirror and finally saw his face for the first time since the accident.

The right side was cross crossed with cuts from the shrapnel, and a large burn covered his ear, ran down his jaw line and about half way up from his ear to the crown of his head. No hair was growing there, and ear looked like melted wax someone had tried to shape into an ear.

He ran his finger over the burn, it skin felt disgustingly smooth to the touch. But the worst was here his eye had been. It looked like ground meat to him, and that was after the doctors had worked on it.

Aside from that, there was a large cut running down from his brow, over his ruined eye and down to his jaw line. Another deep cut, but this one much shorter, ran across the bridge of his nose.

Stepping back, he looked in the mirror again to get the whole picture of what he'd become. His arm was gone at the shoulder, now leaving on a knot of forming scar tissue and still raw burns.

He didn't even look like himself anymore, he'd wondered how they had even identified him. He suspected he'd been identified from his gear because he didn't look at all like himself.

He wasn't vain about his appearance in a general sense, but he knew he had been considered attractive, but now, he looked horrible. He just seemed like a victim, and he hated when other's felt pity for him, empathy and sympathy he could stand, but pity made his gut churn.

But, he was alive, he was lucky in that regard. Other's hadn't made it out at all, and here he was, mangled, but alive, and he was starting to heal.

His sight returning was proof of that. He felt his Aura surging through him, and could almost feel the cuts knitting together the burns healing, and even the broken bones fusing.

He decided he wanted to take another soak in the hot spring, get himself some extra help in this area. Taking his walking crutch, he started towards the living room.

That was the first time he smelled it, food. Pancakes, he thought.

The cabin was an open floor, with the living room and kitchen were connected, and he could see Yang cooking on the stove.

It was weird, seeing her looking so…domestic. She was a hard as nails fighter, and thrill junkie. The idea she could cook was strange to him. He knew how to cook for himself, but it was utilitarian in every respect.

This smelled good.

Making his way over to the counter, he took a pancake and ate it with nothing on it. Despite the lack of syrup or any topping, it still tasted good.

"This is good." He said as she continued to finish her work.

"You're like my sister you know? Can't wait to eat, can't even wait for the toppings."

He shrugged at this "So you cook, fight, party, and take care of the sick?"

"Hey, I spent years taking care of Ruby, I had to learn something other than beating people up."

Thor smiled at that, and he felt weird smiling, like his muscles to do so had fallen into disuse. "So why pancakes?"

"Figure we'd be able to eat the easier than other stuff." She said as she turned the stove off and pilled the last of pancake on the tray. "Go ahead and eat, we'll get you into the spring when you're done."

Pulling a plate towards himself and stacking the pancakes high on it, he poured syrup on them and cut them with the side of his fork and started to eat, and felt properly hungry for the first time in a long time.

"You won't be joining me in the pool today?" he teased as he ate.

"We're here for you to get better, but I might come in later." He piled the dishes in the sink before continuing "No drinking this time, it's not good for you."

"You drank some last night." He countered before taking another mouth full of pancakes.

"Yeah and that was mistake…" she said distantly like her mind was else where.

That caught him as weird, but he ignored it and finished his breakfast.

* * *

Yang didn't want anymore drinking after what had happened last night.

She was grateful that Thor didn't seem to remember, which she also thought was odd. He hadn't drunk enough to make him black out, but she supposed the heat and his medication could have had a similar effect.

But she didn't want a repeat of last night.

She'd gotten a little too…Friendly with Thor last night.

Nothing happened, but she had kissed him once. He didn't seem to hate it, but he was pretty near the end of his night at that point.

She didn't know what made her do it if it was just the setting, alcohol, and the feeling of relief she felt in his getting better, but she had made a pretty strong move on him last night, and if he hadn't passed out, she didn't know what would have happened.

She didn't need that in her head now. She had enough on her plate without trying to hook up with a friend.

But damn it, it wasn't something she could put out of her mind. Once something was done it couldn't be undone, and while Thor didn't remember, but she did, and she could get it out of her head.

* * *

Thor sat on the couch as he watches Yang clean up, and felt a twinge of guilt over not being able to help her. But if his recovery stayed on course, he would be able to soon.

But as he watched her work with one arm, he wondered if he'd adapt to her. Despite her set back she was getting along with her life and adjusting. Plenty didn't, or don't, and not all of them had anything like that level of setback.

He was one of those who didn't, at least for those months he'd spent recovering. He was ashamed of himself for it now that he'd started to mend. He knew his injuries were worse than her's, but he'd made no progress on his own until something had begun to help him fix himself.

His condition, he the thought of it never left him, and not just his physical limitations. He didn't even look like himself. Vanity or not, a person's idea of self was at least in some way linked to their appearance, good or bad, and his was drastically changed.

"Yang!" he called after her as she finished up.

"What do you think of my…appearance?"

* * *

"When did you turn into a chick?" was her first response. She didn't really want to answer the question, and it reminded her of girls she'd known asking their boyfriends or girlfriends "Am I pretty?"

He was clearly a bit taken aback by the response, but only for a second as he responded: "No, what I mean is, do I still look like me?"

Oh, that wasn't as bad in some ways, but worse in others. The simple fact was, no, he didn't. But she didn't know how to say that without hurting him.

She looked him over, and he didn't look good, even with his new vitality and progress towards recovery. The numerous injuries that would no doubt be scars soon marred his previous good looks.

But she could still see him through the scars. His one remaining eye was still bright blue, his shaggy hair was the golden color she still recognized, and his face.

Half his face was so badly scared she couldn't recognize him. But she knew his face, and the part she could see was familiar enough that she could recognize him.

"I can see you're still you Thor, don't worry about your appearance too much."

"Oh, that's what all the pretty girls say to the ugly ones." He responded with a smirk.

She knew from that he was poking fun at her, but still, her answer had eased him up a bit, she could see it in his shoulders as he relaxed a bit.

"Come on, let's get you into the spring."

* * *

Yang helped him into the water, although she wasn't sure if she even needed to help him, seeing he'd managed to do it himself the night before. She'd wondered about that a bit, but knew that even in his condition he could get somewhere he really wanted to, as long as it wasn't too far.

He hissed as he went in hot water, she guessed his burns were still tender to the heat, but they did look better already, after only one day.

"So how'd you get in here last night? I mean, I get that you knew about where it was, but how'd you manage it?"

He took a deep breath and looked at her "I stumbled along the wall for a while, found the fridge, took a bottle of champagne, and made my way out the door. After that, it was just a matter of wandering around until I fell in."

Yang pictured him in her mind's eye just walking around the area until he fell in the water. It was funny and sad at the same time. Given his recovery, however, she felt it landed more on the funny side. So she laughed.

"Do I amuse you?"

"No…it's just…you're so stubborn, that you will literally walk blind into an unknown environment."

He shrugged "You getting in?" was all he said in response.

She looked at the water as it steamed, and the vapor rising over the still cool air. The day was a bit chilly, so why not?

"Yeah, I'll go change, be in a minute."

She went into the cabin and pulled her bag out and started to shift through it. She'd pack a bathing suit because she knew that at some point she wanted to try these springs out. She'd actually wanted to come to one of these for a few years now, but her dad never really cared to, and family vacations had been spent at the beach.

Not that she didn't like the beach, but she still wanted to come here.

Finding her bathing suit, she changed in the living room, which she wouldn't have normally done, but there wasn't anyone around for miles, except Thor, and he was sitting outside in a pool of hot water.

As she got ready to head back out, she grabbed a towel and opened the fridge.

It was stocked with all sorts of drinks, which she wanted to keep Thor from. Beer, which she knew he liked, and harder stuff, like Champagne.

There was water too, and that's what she grabbed for the two of them. She didn't want to say anything to Thor, but she thought he might be developing a drinking problem. He wasn't over the edge yet, but he'd had a drink of some volume almost every day since he'd started to stay with her and her dad.

He'd probably ask for beer when she brought him water, but she didn't think he knew it was in there, he'd blindly snatched the champagne out last night, but he wasn't able to see.

And if he drank, she knew she'd start too. She didn't have a problem drinking, but she was very much a social drinker if someone else did, she wanted to join in on the fun. After last night, she didn't want to go there again.

Pushing the thought to the back of her mind, she brought the water and towels out.

* * *

Thor watched as Yang came back out with towels and bottles of water. As she set them down, he was surprised at what she was wearing a swimsuit.

It was a simple yellow one piece bikini. He didn't know what he was expecting, but this was decidedly modest for Yang.

"What, see something you like?" her tone was teasing and he just huffed at it.

"It's just, well, I'd imagined you wearing something a little more…flashy?"

She laughed as she climbed in and swam to him to give him his water. "I'm not here to try and pick anyone up, I'm here to help you and enjoy a soak in some hot natural water."

He took the cap off with his teeth and took a sip." Yeah, that makes sense." He looked at her as she took a deep breath and went under the water for a few moments. She came up taking a deep breath and ran her hand over her head sweeping her long hair back.

"Ahh! That feels so good!" she sighed as she rested her back against the wall of the spring.

That looked like a good idea, and following Yang's example, he submerged himself in hot water.

The burns on his face felt much hotter for a few seconds but started to acclimate after a bit.

But he felt like he was under long enough and breached the water.

Taking a deep breath, he saw some of his hair covering his eye and used his hand to sweep it back. Granted he didn't have as much as Yang to push back, but it was still shaggy.

"So, you weren't going to try and pick me up?"

* * *

Yang was grateful for the vapor and heat, it hid her blush pretty well. Did he remember last night? How she'd made a fool of herself after drinking.

But as she examined his face, she was pretty sure he was just teasing her about the comment.

Her heart rate dropping, she splashed some water at him, which he shielded himself from with his arm, laughing.

"Smart ass" she snickered.

He didn't say anything for a bit but took another drink from his water bottle. The atmosphere was warm and pleasant, and not just because of hot spring. She felt like he was coming back more towards his old self.

She looked him over, and she noted the rate of recovery was remarkable. This place must really have helped. Hell even she was feeling better from being here like she was getting an energy boost from it.

But it was more than that, there was euphoria she couldn't pin point. It was a general sense of wellness that had over come her in the past day or so.

Well, being on vacation, even if it wasn't really one, certainly helped. But there was something in her gut that said there was more to it.

They sat them for about an hour before Yanf decided it was time to get out. This was nice, and all, but the heat was starting to get to her.

Thor protested a bit, but in the end hoisted himself out of the water to sit on the ledge while Yang climbed out and brought him his towel.

Drying herself off first, she went over to help him stand, then lead him into the cabin.

* * *

As Yang set him down on the couch, he let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.

He felt much warmer than he'd initially thought, but he was cooling off quick.

Yang went into the bathroom to change, and for the first time since he'd woken up, he wondered how he, and her, would get back into the fight. She might be able to cope with one arm, but he at least needed a prosthetic leg.

Ideally, they'd both get full prosthetics, but they were expensive. He didn't know if Yang's father could afford one for her or not, but he knew he didn't have anywhere near the money to afford it. He'd saved some cash from his fights, but that wouldn't come close to covering the cost.

"If you're gonna change, do it while I'm in here!" he hears her voice call from the bathroom "I don't want to come out and see you naked this time!"

"You love it!" he called back, but grabbed his bag and pulled it towards him and opened it. He just grabbed a t-shirt and underwear and changed.

Yang came out a few minutes later, dressed similar to himself, a t-shirt and shorts.

"Yang, how are we going to…fight, even when I've recovered?"

She looked taken aback by the question, apparently not expecting it. But she still answered, "I didn't want to tell you until you started to get better, but we've been given state of the art combat prosthetics, gifts from General Ironwood himself."

That was a surprise to Thor, especially he didn't even know the man.

Yang apparently saw the confusion on his face, because she continued "For what we did during the fall, said it was the least he could do."

"But why us? Did he extend the offer to any one else?"

Yang shrugged at this "Couldn't say, but I don't know of anyone who was as badly hurt as you or me."

Thor didn't want to miss the chance, but it seemed too good to be true, he'd be walking and fighting again, on his own.

"Where are theses prosthetic?"

"At my house, you can try your when we get back, I think at this rate you'll be up to it. But I think we'll have to practice a bit before we're ready to hit the field."

Thor nodded at that, it made sense, given that he'd have to adjust.

"You're also gonna need to fix your hammer, the school sent over the pieces of your equipment…"

"No." He said suddenly "I'm not remaking that gear, my teachers were right, too much can go wrong. I'll make something else, but not that."

He didn't lie as he said this, but he left out that in some way, he felt that trying to replicate his real hammer was a mistake in the first place, almost a blasphemy.

"Okay, but you're still gonna need a new weapon, got anything in mind?"

"Yeah, I've got a few ideas."

* * *

Yang started the gas fireplace that came with the cabin as the sun begun to go down. It was getting chilly at night and she didn't really have a blanket to cover up with.

The light from the fire was casting a gentle glow over the room, and the warmth lapped over her body. This was incredibly relaxing, and she thought she might just pass out right there on the couch. But she had other things to do, so she forced herself up, and went into the one bedroom, where Thor was changing into his swim suit.

"You ready?" she asked, knowing full well that he was.

"You won't be joining me?" He said as he turned to face her.

"Not tonight, I'm gonna relax on the couch, maybe read a book, then if I don't pass out, I'll pull you out if the pool and get you to bed, but if I do fall asleep, well you got in fine on your own last night."

She was teasing him of course, she wouldn't leave him in there all night, but it was fun messing with him.

He rolled his eyes at her, and raised his arm up, letting her know he was ready to go.

She hefted him up and carried him to the pool.

After he was in the water, Yang went back inside, grabbed a book and started reading.

She'd been doing it for ten minutes before she realized she wasn't taking in a word of it. Her mind was elsewhere. Where that was, she didn't know, but she was starting to feel agitated that she couldn't relax.

She understood it was a paradox to try and relax, but it didn't help. Getting up, she looked out the back door to see how Thor was doing. He was fine as far as she could see, just relaxing with his head back resting on the ledge.

Going to the fridge, she noticed the Chanpage that was chilling in there.

Looking over the door to see if Thor was looking this way, she pulled one out and popped it.

She wasn't going to get black out drunk, but he needed to loosen up a bit.

Pouring herself a glass, she took a sip.

* * *

One glass had turned into near the whole bottle an hour later. She didn't know what had come over her, but this stuff tasted good, and she just kept knocking more back.

As dizzy as she was, she made her way to the fridge and popped another bottle. This time not bothering with a glass, but drank straight from it.

Looking out the screen back door, she spied Thor still in the water.

Smirking, she grabbed the third and final bottle and headed outside.

* * *

Thor heard the door open, but didn't look "I'm not ready to get out yet."

"You're not getting out, I'm getting in."

It was Yang's voice, but it didn't sound right. He looked at her, and she came out with two bottles of the champagne he'd taken the night before.

She set one unopened one next to him and stepped into the water without bothering to take her cloths off or change.

Thor looked from her to the bottle she'd placed next to him. Without a second more of the thought, he grabbed it and popped it. He took three large gulps of it before setting it down.

"Been drinking?"

She just smiled at him and took another swig from her bottle instead to answer his question.

He knocked back another swig.

"I kind of wanted to hook up with you, ya know?" she said, looking at the sky.

"Hmmm?" he muttered in response.

"Back when you first showed up at Beacon, I thought 'Damn that's a beautiful piece of man meat!'"

"Oh really?" he said, taking another sip.

"Yeah, sort of fell off after I got to know you though, seemed weird."

They both knocked back some more drink.

Thor looked into the stars, not really thinking about what she said.

It wasn't until he felt the water shift around him.

Looking back down, he saw less than a foot away from him.

"I'm still up for it, though." She plunged in and kissed him on the lips.

It wasn't graceful at all, but the passion wasn't lost on him.

He reached his arm behind her back as she's reached behind his. They linked up perfectly in the regard, his left arm, and her left arm, they mirrored each other in that regard.

They rolled in the water, drunk and hot.

* * *

Yang's head was throbbing the next day as she rubbed her temples.

She realized she wasn't on the couch, but in bed.

As she did this, the previous night's events came crashing down on her.

She looked over to see Thor asleep on the bed with her.

Well, she'd done exactly what she didn't want to do, she'd gotten drunk and made a fool of herself.

She remembered drinking and making out with Thor, but it got hazy after that.

She had flashes of memory, but nothing linear. The bed was wet, and she pulled the blanket off, to find with relief that she was still wearing the cloths she was wearing when he decided to take a dip in the spring.

So she had in all likelihood brought Thor back to his bed, and the two had passed out on the bed together, and nothing else had happened.

Thor was still fast asleep, and she decided to make her escape now before he woke up. She didn't know how much he remembered, probably more than her, given she'd drank a good deal more than him.

* * *

Waking up in his bed, he noticed it was wet, and he feared he'd had another episode. But he hadn't had a nightmare the night before. As he looked under the blanket and noticed he was still in his swimming trunks.

Rubbing his head, he thought back to the night before.

It took him a moment to remember what Yang had done and found himself confused, but not altogether unpleasant.

He'd never really thought of a relationship while he was here. But the idea that had come into his mind, that his lesson was to be mortal, then he'd be here for a long time, and he had started to think of his time here a much more permanent experience. He didn't know for sure if that was the case, but he felt that was close to the truth.

But she was drunk, and he was more than a little buzzed. Not exactly good decision-making skills on either of their parts in that situation.

But she'd drank much more than him, and he didn't know if she'd remember the night before. He hadn't blacked out this time because he'd stopped taking his pain killers, with his injuries healing, he didn't want them anymore.

He'd see how today went before he pressed the issue, and with that, he grabbed his crutch and got up for the day.

* * *

Yang was in the shower, so he just made his way to the couch to sit down and wait for her. He thought of making Breakfast but didn't think he could properly navigate the kitchen with one leg and one arm, at least not yet.

Yang took much less time in the shower than he thought she normally did. She came out wearing an outfit similar to what she'd worn the previous day. She looked at him for a second then looked away and headed to the kitchen.

"So." He began as she started to get cookware out. "Do you remember last night?"

* * *

She froze, only for a minute, but continued on her way getting breakfast ready. "Remember what?" it was possible he didn't remember and was just asking about the previous night.

"When you out into the pool, with a couple bottle of champagne."

Well, he remembered, so she might as well handle this now. "Look, Thor, I was drinking, I wasn't thinking clearly, just…let's just forget about it okay?"

She looked at Thor as he stood up from the couch and balanced himself with his crutch.

"What if I don't want to?"

* * *

He wasn't sure why he said, it but felt right, he didn't want to forget it. He was lonely here, and he was tired of it. He'd desired an emotional connection without even being aware of it.

But hadn't he known for a while, on an unconscious level at least? The dreams of being alone, the fact that he'd formed a bond as strong as he did with people he really didn't know that well, his closeness to Ruby.

He was lonely, and he was tired of it, the memory of the previous night just solidified it. More the fact he'd experience a close and fairly intimate encounter with Yang, and it had drawn a stark comparison between what he'd experienced, and what he was experiencing.

"What would be so bad about it?" He said as he hobbled toward her. Her face was showing signs of discomfort, but he pressed on. "I'm tired of being alone frankly, and I'm fairly sure what happened last night didn't just happen because you were drinking."

* * *

Yang didn't know what he meant exactly by being alone unless he meant in a general relationship sense or his lack of a family. But she thought he may have been right on the point of what she'd done last night. He didn't remember, but she'd done it the first night too. Granted both had been results of her drinking, but the fact that she'd still done it on two separate occasions… Well, she wasn't oblivious to the fact that alcohol was a disinhibitor, and it was just making her more likely to act on impulse desire.

But did she feel that way for him? Well, she'd felt a physical attraction to him early on, she'd told him that much. But what about emotional?

She liked him, a lot. He was confident, kind, strong and overall pretty fun. She didn't care about his looks, she didn't feel anything different about him now that he'd been severely scared than she did when he was basically the golden god of Beacon.

But did those feeling go beyond liking him as a friend? Well, she didn't know honestly. She did like him as a friend. Maybe more? Given her action the previous two nights, she thought she might, but she wasn't sure.

"So, let's say we pursue this. Where does it go? We hook up and what?"

He didn't look like he really had an answer ready for that. He looked a confused for a moment before answering. "Then we continue." He said, and it was irritating he didn't specify what he meant.

She was about to respond to this vague answer, but he kept talking. "We both almost died during the fall of Beacon. This life isn't so long as we can wait. Why not seize what affection we can?"

That didn't seem quite like him, too fatalistic, but it still rang true to her.

Maybe she should give this a chance, she didn't know if she'd live as long as she had originally planned, Adam had shown her, her own mortality, by dispatching her so easily.

What the Hell, life was short, and she didn't have other options at the moment, and she liked him anyway, what was actually holding her back?

* * *

She spoke "Alright." She was smiling as she said it "Let's give it a try, what's the worst that could happen?"

Thor smiled as he closed the distance between them. "Well, I'd say, grab some beer and let's head into the hot spring for our last day here."

Then he kissed her, and she returned it,

* * *

Yang had expected a lot more physical intimacy after they had talked, but really, she couldn't see much of a difference between how they were acting now, and when they had been at Beacon.

They had kissed, and that had gotten pretty heavy. But once they had the beer in the hot spring, Thor had calmed down and wasn't as aggressive in his advances.

She frankly was glad, because for all her flirty nature and comfort flaunting her body, she'd never had a serious relationship in her life, let alone gone past first base.

What he'd relegated himself to was talks of achievements and boasts of strength, which she felt she'd matched him blow for blow. It was sort of a game to him, bragging about his accomplishments, and challenging her to match or beat him.

But he wasn't hostile about it, and frankly, she felt he was embellishing his tales, but that felt like it was part of the game, to improve on the facts.

It was fun, but she felt it was odd, that she wasn't trying to do anything more physical with her. Every guy who had ever sought to hook up with her had tried to get to that part as quick as possible. Thor didn't seem to care for that, or at least it wasn't the primary concern, he wanted to talk and share stories.

But, as they sat in the spring and drank more beer, she felt it was going to get to the point of physical intimacy soon.

But she was having fun, trying to outdo each other. She almost forgot that they had agreed to be "more than friends," and she was starting to wonder if that agreement was ever going to become an actuality.

* * *

Thor took another swig from the beer they had brought out with them to the hot spring. It wasn't nearly as strong as what he'd been consuming, but he liked its taste more, to be frank.

Yang had been drinking pretty consistently as well, but he didn't think either of them was drunk, buzzed perhaps, but far from drunk.

"So…" he began, "If you could change one thing about your semblance, what would it be?" the question seemed to come at random as they had been talking, but it seemed like a good questions.

Yang didn't answer at first, seeming to think carefully before answering "I'd like it to stop the damage I take, so I don't have to actually experience it, just take it in a deal it back." She said as she took another sip of her beer, and grimaced. She clearly didn't like the taste as much as he did, but she still liked the lighter effect of the alcohol. "What about you? What would you change about your semblance?"

That was easy for him to answer if he wanted to be truthful. But that wasn't an option for him so he had to think quickly "I'd like to be able to alter the weather in a more…Creative way, I mean without dust assisting me, I'd like to make it rain fire without the need to mix in fire dust."

She snorted an laugh at thing "Yeah, that would be cool, but really, can that even happen?"

Thor smiled at this, more than she knew but he wasn't about to tell her that "I suppose not, but it's a hypothetical question, so going beyond reasonable limits is part of the fun."

Yang laughed and took a long draught from her beer. As she set the bottle down on the ledge, she smiled a smile he'd never quit on her before. Then she started to make her way through the water towards him.

"You know Thor, I really did consider hooking up with you when I first meet you, but I honestly thought my little sister had a crush on you." She wrapped her arm around his neck. "I didn't do anything because I thought she might like you." She looked him in the eye as she continued, "But she didn't have any interest in you, beyond friendship." She paused at this "Her loss I guess. But I think there is something that might just work here." She leaned in and placed her lip gently on his.

The kiss broke, and she spoke again " I want to see where this is going Thor, and I'm ready to take this as far as I can." She kissed him again, and he returned it with full passion.

They were hot and more than a little buzzed, but more than that, they were both in need of a human connection, in need of a profound physical connection.

And that night they made one.

* * *

 **A/N: Okay, there it is, please leave a review.**


	7. Hitting the Road

**_A/N: Okay, here's the next chapter._**

 ** _I'd like to thank Jawaswar Jenkins for what is easily the longest review for this story so far._**

 ** _Right now I've averaging one review per chapter. Not great, but they have been generally positive. At the least, they haven't been negative. So I take that as a this is just a middle of the road story. Which I'm good with, better than being out right bad._**

 ** _But I do want to improve, so if you're reading this far, I'd like to know what I'm doing that is keeping you reading, and what is maybe not being done so well. So far most of the critical reviews were mentions of missed mistakes rather than writing style or ability._**

 ** _But that aside, here's the next chapter_** **.**

* * *

Chapter 6

* * *

As they packed to leave the cabin, Thor couldn't help but feel sorry for leaving the place. He'd only been there for a long weekend, but it held some powerful memories for him. His injuries healing, his sight returning, and of course, him and Yang.

But he knew they'd have to leave, too much work to be done. They needed to get their prosthetics, then there was the adjustment period. He still needed to make a new weapon as well, and he'd learned his lesson, he wasn't going to be nearly as ambitious as last time. No, he was going from much simpler, maybe quite a bit less powerful, but less likely to blow up in his face.

He felt like a bum as Yang loaded the bags while he watched. He'd of like to help her, but they both knew that if he tried, it would just take longer and cause more delays, and as much as they would have liked to stay, they knew it was time to leave.

He sat in the front this time, with the window rolled down, admiring the area and surrounding wilderness, he'd obviously missed it on the journey here, but it was a pleasant little-secluded area.

He knew it was partially fabricated on the part of the cabin's owners of course. The other cabins in the area weren't all that far, but the geography and landscaping gave the illusion of real isolation, instead of being able to walk an hour at most to your nearest neighbor.

Not a total fabrication, but definitely an enhancement of seclusion.

Yang climbed into the driver side and turned to him "Ready to go?"

He looked at her and nodded "Let's hit the road, we have work to do if we're going to find your sister."

* * *

Yang smiled at this comment, not because he was right, though he was. But because he reminded her of what Ruby had tried on several occasions to do with them. Funny, that they'd only hooked up after she had left.

But that thought, in turn, made her stomach turn, she was worried about her sister. She knew she wasn't alone, the other's would look out for her, and she'd look out for them. But the worrying didn't dissipate at this thought. She started the car and pulled out of the driveway.

Neither spoke for a few minutes, but then Thor broke the silence "After we get all of this, what ever the whole ordeal is, squared away, what to come back here?"

Yang glances at him, but only for a moment so she could keep her eye's on the road. "Yeah, I'd like that, maybe longer than just a long weekend next time."

Thor nodded, and silence came back. There was a real conversation to be had, and Thor had just touched on it, but she hadn't talked to him about it, thinking first of his recovery and didn't want to stress him out. But he was healing quickly now, and she'd dare say he was going to be as good as he was ever likely to get now in the couple days.

"What do you think all this is anyway? The secrets, the attacks, the Whitefang, all of it?" she asked him, keeping her eye's forward on the road.

"I don't have a damn clue. Is something bigger than a terrorist group, of that I'm certain, but who they really are, what they want, I'm just as in the dark as you."

She didn't know why, but that disappointed her a bit, she'd felt he would have been keyed in on some of the detail, in some way. She didn't have any logical reason for feeling this way, she just did.

But there was no point in talking more on the issue, she didn't know any more than he did. They' find out together it looked like when they found her sister, they'd start to solve this mystery.

But she didn't want to stop talking, long silences were never something she enjoyed. "So, you said you weren't going to remake your old weapons, I mean I get why you'd be hesitant to, but you have to admit that it was a powerful combination."

He looked at her with his good eye. "Well, you're right in the area of me being hesitant, the failure was catastrophic." He waved his hand in a gesture over himself, as if to indicate the damage. "This was mostly my own doing, granted Adam took my leg and damaged my weapons system causing the final failure, but I had been told something like that could happen, but I never really thought it would, and look at me now."

She didn't want to look, not because she found his injuries repulsive or his appearance made her uncountable. But she didn't want to give the impression of gawking. But he didn't push that part of the issue and continued.

"But aside from that, I doubt I could if I wanted to. The material components would be too hard to find right now, with every kingdom isolating itself, and Dust becoming more scares. It's simply not efficient to do so."

Well, that made sense to her. After the fall of Beacon and CCT tower, things like dust were getting rarer. It wasn't exactly scarce yet, but with the world biggest supplier of dust no longer shipping it, it was only a matter of time.

"So what did you have in mind then, if you're going to make a new weapon."

He didn't answer right away, just stared out the window at the scenery, then spoke: "You'll have to wait and see."

"You tease." She laughed as the speed back towards her home. Which she realized, would have her father waiting for their return.

Guess she was bringing home her new boyfriend to meet dad actually quickly.

* * *

As they pulled in Thor noticed for the first time what the home he'd been staying in looked like. It wasn't remarkable in any way, a pretty standard home. But it filled him with queer sensation to realize he was only now just seeing a place he'd spent weeks in.

As Yang parked the car, she climbed out to help him. He put up with it because he knew soon he'd be able to function on his own.

"Let's get you inside, and then you can have a look at the prosthetic Ironwood sent you. I've seen mine already, I don't know what you're is gonna look like though."

He nodded at this as he got his crutch under him and started towards the house. It didn't seem like Taiyang was home, and he found himself wondering when he'd be home. He found he was curious to know what he looked like if his daughters took after him or their mothers.

As he made his way into the Living room, he sat himself down on the couch.

"Hold on, I'll bring you the boxes."

So he sat there, waiting patiently. Thinking of what he needed to do now. He absentmindedly ran his hand over the sacred right side of his face. That was a disturbing sight, even to him when he'd first seen it. He'd have to do something about it at some point. Cover it up, at the very least he should do it to keep dust and dirt from getting into it.

But that was a matter for another time. He watched Yang, carrying in one long box, but what he noticed more than that was she was using two arms. She was wearing her new arm.

Setting the box down she did a little flex of the new arm. "What do you think? Pretty cool right? Not bulky or anything right?"

He nodded, "Yes, much slimmer than I thought it would be. I hope it can take a hit."

"Oh, don't you worry about that!" She said punching her new hand into her palm.

He smiled at this and opened the box or crate was more accurate. Inside was and prosthetic arm and leg, which both aesthetically looked like Yangs. The only real difference was they were larger and bulkier for his frame.

"No time like the present to try them I suppose."

* * *

The prosthetic was incredibly odd. Not because they didn't feel right, but because they felt to right. He didn't think robotic replacements would feel like this, like the real thing. Granted he was still wobbling when he walked, but he still felt everything he would have with his organic limbs. Right now he just felt like they were the real things, but had atrophied from disuse, which he supposed was right in a way.

"I wished I was taking to this thing like you are Yang, it's almost like…" he trailed off and gave her a questioning look. "Have you been practicing with your replacement while I was recovering?"

Her expression told him all he needed to know. "Why would you think you needed to hide that?"

Her face relaxed, "I just didn't want you to think I was making progress when you were…Well, sort stuck in a rut."

He sighed at this, did people really think he was that sensitive or petty? Well, given the attitude he'd had over the past months, maybe it wasn't unlikely for them to draw that conclusion.

"Well, I wish you hadn't hidden it." He started grinning at her "Would have made the little trip we took a lot easier, you wouldn't have needed to do everything one-handed."

She looked relieved and returned the smile. "Well, since I've got a head start on the learning curve, I'll give you a few days to adjust before he tries these things out for real."

"Is that a challenge?" He knew it was, but he enjoyed egging her on.

"Sure as hell it is!"

Just then the door swung open as Tiayang entered the house.

* * *

He knew his little ruse had worked the moment he walked in. Thor was looking much better and was even wearing the prosthetic Ironwood had sent him.

"Well, looks like you've gotten better, guess those spring were the real deal?" He didn't want to reveal his deception so soon after the healing process, it might make his regress. He'd tell them both eventually, but for now, there was no harm in letting think the hot spring had triggered his healing.

But he felt something was different in the air, and it wasn't just Thor's recovery.

"You two okay?"

* * *

Yang didn't like the idea of just telling her dad about how she and Thor had hooked up, but putting it off wasn't going to do any good. So she might as well get it over with.

"Yeah, Thor and I decided to start dating each other, no big deal, let's move on from it."

"Oh, okay, just make sure to use protection okay?" Her father replied.

That took her off guard. His response was so blase she thought he might not have heard her. But his comment about protection seemed to oppose that idea.

Her confusion must have read on her face because her father responded "You've both legal adults, and I think you're both responsible enough to be dating, I'm not gonna be the stereotypical over protective dad with you Yang. With Ruby…Maybe, she'd be still a little too young. But you can make your own choices, I'm not gonna step in unless I think you're really screwing up." He stopped and looked for a moment at Thor. "And I don't believe you have, in this regard anyway."

With that, he went into the kitchen to fix himself some lunch.

* * *

Thor raised his eyebrows and looked at Yang "That went better than I would have expected." He said lightly.

He hadn't planned on hiding the relationship, but Yang's desire to get it out front was almost funny. Like she was scared of what her father might do. But he'd taken it pretty well, in stride in fact.

Most father's hated it when their daughters dated. He also knew from experience that mothers didn't like it when their son's started to go out. But Taiyang was handling it all in stride. Actually, he seemed at peace with it.

Well, he wasn't going to complain. He had work to do, especially now if Yang wanted to challenge him to a fight in a few days. He needed a weapon, and he needed a forge.

"Yang, do you know if any of my equipment was salvaged from the fight?"

She looked at him quizzically for a moment before answering "Yeah, some of it the doctors pulled out of you, some were collected by the search team. I even have the handle of your hammer, it came in the mail from someone…" she trailed off at that. "It didn't have a note, but I took it to mean you were dead…" her eye's fogged over as if reliving the memory. "Thor, I want you to promise me…" she didn't seem to know what she wanted him to promise her.

But after stalling for a few minutes, she fished "You'll never die so long as me…Or Ruby is alive to see it happen."

* * *

Thor was taken back by this statement. But felt the need to reassure her " Of course, why do you think I lived through what I did? I couldn't …."

She cut him off "Thor, that bravado stuff is perfect for Ruby, and I'm glad to see you have it back, but come on, I'm not my sister, I need the promise to be sincere."

He hadn't even realized he was putting up his show, it just felt so natural to him. But she was right, in this respect, he had to be genuine.

"Okay, Yang I promise that I won't ever leave you…or your sister, I'll always be there for you." This felt weak as a response so he continued "I may not be…indestructible…but as long as someone I care about needs me to be there, I will be."

He still felt this was a shallow response, but it was the best he could think of.

But she smiled at this, "I'll take that for now, but you better mean it."

"I do." Was all he could say in response.

* * *

Thor needed to work on his equipment. Yang had understood that, and her father had agreed to help in that regard. He was being allowed to use the Signal forge to make his new weapon.

He had all the pieces of his old equipment that had been saved from the hospital and other sources. The regulators from his belt were totally fried, completely worthless now except as scrap. The disks that contained the dust batteries he'd mixed with his semblance in the vest had burst and exploded.

All in all, he only had the raw metal to work with. If he wanted to develop any new systems, they'd have to be developed from scratch. He'd need metal and what dust he could find to make this work the way he wanted, but if could find the right parts and ingredients, he could get this to where he wanted.

First was the metal, he needed to melt it down into the shape he wanted. He would probably need to add more raw material for it to work. He didn't have all the pieces of his previous equipment.

This wasn't going to be as easy as his first weapon. Despite the fact what he planned was far simpler, he didn't have the instinctive blue prints in his head for this. This was going to be much more challenging than he'd thought.

* * *

To his surprise, the dust system was much easier to figure out than would have suspected. He supposed that it was because it was only slighty modified from his old system. But this was contained solely in his weapon, with a regulator in his prosthetic arm.

This was based on the gravity dust system on his old weapon, but far less complicated. This system only made him able to throw and recall the weapon and increase the weight of his strikes. But the safety system that kept anyone else from using it was gone. Also, the other dust systems that let him mix dust with his semblance was also gone.

He could throw it, and call hit back, that was it. None of the other systems were present.

But he was having problems with the physical aspect of the weapon.

He was trying to make this weapon hardier than the last. He'd ignored that last time, and it had come back to haunt him.

He'd found a rare dust that may help in that regard. Well, rare in the fact it wasn't widely requested by private weapon builders.

It was more often used by ammunition manufacturers. Adamantine dust, it was just the hardened and in general made what ever it was mixed with stronger. It was mostly used to make armor piercing round and shells.

Its use on a private level was rare, and as such, he'd found it hard to come by. But he'd managed to vile of the stuff, at the cost of all his personal funds.

It wasn't much, but he had plans to use it in a much more permanent way than normal.

As he thought this, he heated up the forge, and placed he metal he planned to utilize in the mold. He was going to allow his old weapons remains with some new metal from Atlas, supposedly the strongest ever.

He knew it wasn't, he'd seen several metals stronger, but as far as this world went, they may be right. Probably were in fact.

But as he cast the metal, he knew in a general sense what he needed to do.

As the metal cooled into the shape he desired, he readied the new equipment for the job at hand. Once the metal had set and cooled, he took it out and took it to the grinder.

He was putting the finest edge he could in it, sharper than a razor, as sharp and edge could get on it.

After hours of a grinding and honing, he took the dust he'd saved for this occasion and poured half of it into an oil solution. The other half he poured on the fire of the forge.

After that, he put the blade into the fire and tempered it.

Once it was glowing hot, he quenched it in the oil solution.

Once it cooled he pulled the blade out and examined it.

He hadn't named it old weapon like many others did, the only name that made sense seem like a mockery to him.

But this one, he'd had a name for this type of weapon before, and he decided to name this weapon, in honor of this first weapon "Jarnbjorn," he muttered as he ran his thumb over the blade that was now sharper than any blade he'd ever felt before.

* * *

The blade was finished, and the mechanical commenters had been implemented. Jarnbjorn was finished, and the great ax was an excellent weapon if he did say so himself.

He could throw and recall it like his hammer, but other than that, it was just an ax. Granted it was sharper than any edge he knew thanks to his use of adamantine dust, but still a relatively simple weapon overall.

It was a single edge battle ax, granted the one edge was large and it still carried a spear point on the shaft for thrust and stabs. But the beard was meant for hooking and pulling, and the flaring tip was good for stabs as well.

Still, though, it wasn't as versatile his previous weapon system, but far less likely to hurt the user.

He'd be using this one from now on, once he'd finished putting in the components for the electric system in the head and haft that would link it to his arm, but that wasn't much more to do.

It didn't take long, it was a far less complicated system than the old one, only a slightly modified ax. But he'd need something to carry it in, that was next.

Grabbing some leather, he went back to his work bench, sewing and punching holes in the leather, making a sling for the ax. It would go on his back when he was traveling, but he'd designed it so he could pull his weapon out quickly if he had to.

Throwing it over his shoulder, he grabbed Jarnbjorn and slid it into the sling. It fit pretty good, and rested easily on his back, some modifications would be needed, but that wasn't a primary concern right now.

Looking outside, he noticed the sun was setting. This was the third day of this project, and while it had been fun in its own way, he was glad it was done, he could get back to work.

The few days had let him properly acclimate to his new limbs, and he felt his movement were much smoother than they had been on the first day.

As he planned to leave, he caught is a reflection in a polished piece of steel. The scars were as prominent as ever, and in the low light, they looked even deeper. Looking back at the table where he'd made his harness, he grabbed one of the strips of leather he'd cut to make the harness.

Doing so quick modification and putting some fastening clips on it, he pulled it up and placed the patch over his mangled eye and fastened the ends behind his head.

Looking at the metal again, he couldn't help but think he was starting to look more and more like his father.

* * *

Yang was outside practicing her foot work, shadow boxing the air. Her dad had been training her, and she was still incorporating what Thor had taught her, and as she threw a punch, she pulled back and kicked at an invisible opponent.

Mixing it up was the key, she needed to keep the enemy on their toes, guessing what she'd do next. That was something both her dad and Thor agreed on, misdirection was sometimes more efficient than brute force.

It was funny coming from Thor, given his usual approach to a problem was to beat it into the ground.

Speaking of the devil, Thor came walking down the road, and if she wasn't mistaken, his new weapon strapped to his back.

"Hey big guy, care to whip it out and show me?" She said with a smirk gracing her lips. As he got close, she noticed he had an eyepatch over his right eye. Guess he finally got that squared away. She didn't mind the scars, but it was disturbing to other people. An eyepatch would draw curiosity, the scars would cause discomfort.

Thor pulled out a giant axe and pointed it towards her so she could get a better look at it. The blade was really broad and heavily curved, she ran her mechanical hand over the flat of the blade and ran the thumb over the edge, without even thinking of it.

At first, she didn't know what was happening. Then she thought she'd rolled the edge of the blade and was about to apologize to Thor for it. But has he pulled her thumb away, the blade looked fine.

Confused she looked at her thumb and saw a small cut into the metal.

"Holy crap, what is that thing made of!" He said as she examined for anything more than cosmetic damage. The sensors that gave her feeling weren't as sophisticated as biological ones, and of the little nature of the cut, she wasn't surprised it hadn't registered. Luckily it didn't look like she'd have to use any of her already rare replacements parts, it had just cut along the surface.

"The metal of my old gear, and some other ingredients,"

"Like what? I mean for that thing to be that sharp and not lose its edge…"

He smiled at her "I added Adaminitine dust to the fire and quenching oil, to make it tougher."

"Adamantine dust? Isn't that the stuff they use to make armor piercing round, tank armor and fall out shelters?"

"Indeed, I thought that would make the blade hard enough to hold the edge I needed."

Yang got the line of thought, but she'd heard some thing about this dust "But won't that make the blade more brittle?"

"The edge, yes, but the rest is a softer metal composition, that will help prevent damage to the edge."

"I'll take your word for it. But does it have a ranged option? I mean I know your semblance is good for that, but still."

Thor smiled and threw the axe. As the tumbled end over end, it cut through a tree like butter and boomeranged back to him, and he caught it with his prosthetic hand.

"Okay, that's cool, but what do you do while you're waiting for it to come back?"

"I can handle myself, don't you worry." He said as he replaced it in the sling on his back.

"You got a name for this one?"

"Yes, Jarnbjorn."

* * *

The name was a bit odd to her, but then again, Thor wasn't exactly normal, so she just accepted it and moved on to her final question. "Want to spar a bit be we head in for the night?"

"Weapons or hand to hand?" he asked.

"Let's just do hand to hand, for now, give you a chance to get your legs with you…leg." That sounded so stupid. She hadn't meant to say it, it had just sort of come out that way, thankfully, Thor either hadn't noticed or just didn't care.

"Alright." He took the sling over his shoulder off and walked further out into the yard.

She followed him, and they took stances opposite each other. Yang was in her boxing stance, Thor wasn't taking any position she immediately recognized, he just kept his arms at his side. He looked completely open.

But she knew, from what she'd been told, and now what she had experienced herself, that you shouldn't assume an opponent is unaware, open or beaten. Sometimes it was just trick.

She charged him, and once she closes the distance, she raised her fist as if to throw a punch, and Thor raised his guard and stepped forward, apparently to body check her.

But she was ready, and dropped to the ground, and slid between his legs. Rolling to her feet, she came around his blind side and threw four heavy punched into his ribcage.

* * *

He felt the strikes to the torso and was taken by surprise. Yang had always been a straight forward fight, even after their lessons, she still favored the direct approach. What was more, she took advantage of his blindside to get in her attack.

"Clever girl." He muttered and tried a back hand strike, but she danced back out of his reach. Taking the initiative, he lunged forward and threw a haymaker with his right arm, which she side stepped.

She was grinning, thinking she had him on the ropes. But at the moment he threw his elbow back and caught her in the temple, sending her rolling on the ground.

She almost instantly bounced to her feet and came at him again, this time running around his right side again. He turned to follow her, but she was already on him, this time, she'd jumped to bring her knee into his chin.

She was fighting differently, and she'd caught him off guard again. As he shook the cobwebs from the hit, she rained punched on his, and the best he could do was to cover up.

She was much better than the last time he'd seen her in action. Not just physically, but her mindset was much more tactical.

She went him to the ground with a ringing haymaker. As he rolled on the ground, she was on him, as she mounted him, she raining punches on his face which he guarded, but damn, she'd thrown him through a loop.

The punches stopped for a moment, and he uncovered and saw she'd raised her hand to bring them down simultaneously, presumably on the side of his head.

That was all the opening he needed, and he grabbed her wrists firmly.

She may be strong, but his sheer size overpowered her, and with her mounting him, she couldn't leverage any power from her legs.

He brought his head up quickly and smashed his forehead into the bridge of her nose. Her eye's glassed over as she was stunned, and he flipped her. Pinning her arms above her head.

"Looks like I win." He panted in her ear.

She didn't seem to think so because she struggled to get free, but he was too heavy and too strong. She eventually signed and said, "Fine you win."

He let her go and sat back, letting her out from under him. That spar had gotten pretty intense there for a minute, and frankly, if she had just kept the pressure on him with her punches while she had him mounted, she probably would have won.

But as it stood, he'd seized his chance and taken it. He didn't know if it was she was that much better than before, or if he'd actually fallen that far, but he was aware that this fight never would have gone this far before the fall.

He felt it was more her progress than his atrophy, and that was good to know. She was advancing quickly now, much faster than she had while he was teaching her at school.

"So you want to head in now? Dinner is probably ready." She said to him smiling.

"Yeah sounds good, it'll be nice be able to eat with two hands now."

* * *

Yang hadn't felt like she'd sat a family dinner table in months. Ever since Ruby had left, the dinner table was quiet, and it felt like ice some nights. But with her and Thor recovered, and the search for his sister imminent, well, she was feeling hopeful for the first time in a long time.

They talked, laughed and joked as they ate. What was surprising to her was how normal this all felt. The fact she was now dating Thor didn't make the conversation with her dad weird and uncomfortable. He seemed to have accepted the idea with absolute grace.

She'd thought he might have been upset, but here he was treating Thor like one of her old friends. She also realized that this was really the first time she'd brought someone home to meet her dad.

She'd dated a little bit before Beacon, but it never got serious. She wasn't sure how serious it really was with Thor, but he'd been staying with them and sleeping in her sister's room, sort of made the introductions unavoidable.

"So, when do you two think you're heading out?" Taiyang asked between bites of his meatloaf.

"I thought if Thor was ready, tomorrow," Yang said looking at her father, but glancing at Thor.

"I'm fine with that, sitting around here isn't doing me any good, I need to be in the field."

"Well, if you're planning on leaving that soon, I'd suggest packing tonight. Get your supplies ready and all that." He took another bite of his meatloaf.

They didn't need to be told that, they would have done that anyway. But he was her father, she supposed him wanting them to be prepared was normal.

* * *

That night, Thor packed what little he owned into a single bag. He never has much the whole time he was here in the world. But what few changes of clothes he had were there, the money he'd saved up, and what little dust he still had.

He places the bag by the door to Ruby's room so he'd pick it up in the morning. He climbed into bed and removed his prosthetics. IT was easier to sleep with them off, but he knew that he'd have to get used to sleeping with them on. He didn't doubt he could, but this was his last night here, and he wanted to sleep well.

Pulling the covers over him, he drifted off to sleep.

Again, the dreams came.

This time he dreamt of the long bridge over a bottomless void. He felt cold and heat rising from the void, and he was certain something was waiting in the darkness to attack him. It was watching him, and sometimes he thought he saw the shadows move.

* * *

Yang dreamt that night was well, of being on an ocean, with only a raft to keep her afloat. Something was disturbing the water, something alive.

She woke up and still felt the spray from the water on her face. Running her hand over her face and to the back of her head to wake herself up, she knew what this was.

This one was different from before though. The pain wasn't present, but she still felt like it wasn't good.

She wanted to talk to Thor about it, even if he never was much help in this regard.

Getting up she went to Ruby's room and found him awake on the side of the bed.

"You have one too?" he asked.

"Yup, this one about a sea monster, you?"

"Bottomless pit, with maybe a monster hiding in it."

They looked at each other for a moment, before Yang said: "Let's go, it's almost morning, might as well get going now."

Thor didn't respond but started to put his prosthetics on.

* * *

They came down the stairs, and to their surprise found Taiyang waiting for them. "Thought you too might be leaving early. Just wanted to see you off."

Yang put her bag down and went to hug her father. "Thanks for everything dad, I'm gonna bring her home soon."

"I know you will honey, just make sure to look after yourself." They broke the embrace, and Yang kissed him on the cheek.

Taiyang smiled at this but turned to Thor. "I'm trusting you make sure she doesn't get in over her head, she can look after herself, but she's reckless."

"We'll be looking after each other, don't worry about that."

"Here take this." He said tossing a box to Thor. Expecting to see maybe some sort of dust vile or a map, he instead saw a box of condoms.

"Ah, thank you." He said and put them in his bag, smirking as Taiyang's face fell. Apparently, he was hoping to get a rise out him, but that hadn't worked.

Yang, however, blushed furiously "Dad, come on!"

"What?! I know what teens do, especially while camping and without adults around, I just want to make sure you're protected!"

The good natured bickering continued for a few moments while the goodbyes finished, but soon enough, it was time to go.

Thor and Yang walked out the front door, and down the driveway.

"So, how are we going to travel?"

Thor asked as Yang lead the way.

"That right up there." She said pointing the long driveway

Her motorcycle sat there, waiting for them.

"A bit small, isn't it?" Thor said as they got up to it.

"It'll be fine, it's the fastest way to get where we're going."

Thor looked it over and then to her. "I'm taking the back seat?"

"You sure are Big guy."

"You know what they call it right?"

"Yup, the bitch seat, guess that makes you my bitch, huh?" she said slapping him on the ass.

"Okay, I just wanted to be sure we understood our relationship." He said this and started to mount the rear seat while she took the front and started the bike.

They were off at full speed, cutting through the early morning fog, the cold air whipping at their faces and ruffling their hair.

Their journey had begun, and they were confident they would find Ruby and the rest of her new team. Then, together, they'd solve this mystery.

* * *

After a day of riding and wind blowing in his ear, Thor was glad when Yang pulled off to the side to make camp for the night.

"We can't ride all day like that again, I'm so stiff." He said starching his back and rolling his shoulders.

"Yeah, might not be the best idea, just wanted to make up for lost time." She said as she stretched.

Thor dropped his bag and pulled out his bed roll. "I'm going to get some wood for a fire. If you want to set up the pit, I'll be right back."

She didn't protest the idea and started clearing the area for the fire.

Going off to get the wood, he was picking through kindling and heavier wood for the fire.

He found a deadfall which offered plenty of bark for starters, and the rest of the wood he'd need to keep a decent fire going in the night. The nights were still cold so it would have to at least stay as embers until the sun came up.

Once he had enough wood, he headed back and found Yang had cleared the fire pit and set the sleeping area.

Dropping the forest, he started to set about making the fire. He was an old hand at this, and it wasn't long before he got it going.

"So what did you bring for food?" He asked her as he pulled his bag toward himself, ready to pull out his own supplied.

"Pork and Beans, Chili…ummm." She said as she fuffle through her bag "More chile. You know stuff I can cook in the can, you?"

"Same." He said pulling out a can of pork and beans. "I'm got some dried food, but I'm not in the mood for that." He popped the top of the can off and placed in on a stone near the edge of the flames.

Yang mirrored him, opening her can and putting near the fire.

Thor watched the beans started to steam. "We should do some hunting and gathering." He said out loud.

"Why? We have food." Yang said a bit confused.

"This stuff will last forever, we can save it, but fresh meat, fish or fruit will be better for us."

"Okay…well we can try that tomorrow. Tonight, I brought something for our first night out." She reached into her bag and pulled out two large 24-ounce beers, tossing one to him and popping the top on her's "Cheers" she said making the gesture to him.

He opened his and repeated the gesture and started to drink. It was warm. Frankly, he liked it better that way. He wasn't going to be getting a beer or even alcohol like he'd been getting, so he'd decided to savor this one.

They sat as they waited for the food to cook, or more accurately, warm up, it was already cooked, they could have eaten it cold if they had to.

But it tasted better warm, and as the dug in. It wasn't very good, but it wasn't bad either. As they finished, they took their boots off to get ready for bed as the sun started to go down.

The sleeping rolls were not exactly comfortable, but better than the cold ground. The fire was pleasantly warm now, but they would have to feed it at least one more time before they turned in for the night. The mornings were still cold, and it was hard to get moving if your body wasn't warm.

The tree line would keep them covered from the morning rays so it wouldn't be an early warming either. Keeping the fire going was going to be the only way to get them going in the morning.

After Thor there one more sizeable piece of wood onto the fire, they both crawled into their sleeping bag and settle down for the night.

* * *

Yang wasn't sure at the moment what had woken her up, but she knew it wasn't morning yet.

She felt like she hadn't fallen asleep, but she must have, it was the middle of the night, and the last thing she remembered was the fading rays of twilight.

"Yang get up," Thor whispered to her, shaking her shoulder. He was holding his axe and not looking at her, but scanning the tree line for something.

She rolled out of her sleeping bag, scared that maybe she'd woken up too late to adequately defend herself.

Readying her weapons, she got to her feet and crouched next to Thor. "What is it? Did you see something?"

He shook his head, still not looking at her "Heard something, some kind of a cry, but I've never heard anything like it, animal or Grimm."

"What did" She started but was cut off by it. It was shrill cry, it sounded almost like a woman being brutally murdered, but it was so much louder than what any person could produce. The scream finished off with a warbling gutter that sounds almost like a bird calls.

But she'd never neared anything like that either, and it scared her. It seemed close, but it looked like it was coming from multiple directions, and the dim light of the dying fire only barely reached the tree line, if something was lurking out there, it could almost certainly see them, and they couldn't see it.

Thor knelt down and threw another log on the fire, and just as he did, what ever it was let out the shrieking cry again, causing him to jump back up.

"Could just be an animal." She suggested with no real conviction.

"I don't think so." He said as he scanned the area. "look," he points to the tree line and fog was starting to pour through. As the light from the fire hit it, she thought she saw what looked like a snake swimming through it.

The fog seemed to circle them, leaving a circular area about twenty feet in diameter, with the fire at the center. But it rose up over them, blocking out the sky. The light from the fire light of the walls of fog, giving them an orange/yellow glow.

"Thor, what the hell is this?" She didn't think he would know, but she needed to speak.

"This mist is alive, or something else is controlling it, look there." He pointed the mist wall, and again she saw a black shape swimming in it.

"New Grimm type maybe?"

"Probably, somehow it generates this mist to blind its targets."

"Well can't you use your semblance to just blow this away?" His face hardened at that "Thor? Can't you do it?"

"I'm keeping this area clear right now, but I can't do the larger scale weather control anymore, my old weapon amplified that ability, with them gone, it's much harder for me to do anything on a larger scale without depleting my aura."

"Okay, new plan, then." She reeled back and fired a shot into the mist.

"You're wasting ammunition, don't…"

"Hold up." She said, and the screaming started again. Suddenly a long black shape came flying out of the mist.

It missed both of them and bit the camp fire, which exploded into sparks as the creature rocketed back into the mist.

The fire was dying now that the wood had been scattered, and only a few embers were left.

"Did it do that on purpose?" Yang asked Thor, who shrugged at the question.

"I don't know, it could be trying to reduce our visibility."

As he finished, the creature came flying back out, only this time Thor swung his axe, cutting it into two pieces.

They both ran over to look at it because the smoke rising from it was a sure indication it was a Grimm, but not one either of them had ever seen.

It was the size of a medium sized dog, and the bone plating on his head from a large broad beak, but that a body like a snake, only much thicker and shorter compared to its over all size. But most interesting was it had no eyes that either of them could see.

Looking up, Yang noted the mist hadn't cleared yet. "Shouldn't it start to clear now that It's dead?"

Before Thor could answer her, the Shriek rang out from the mist again, and she spotted another black shape, then another, then two more.

"It's pack a hunter," Thor said, readying his axe.

Not a second after he finished, another came flying out, and Yang caught this one, blowing a hole through it.

"At least they.'re not as so tough individually. " She muttered as two more flew at Thor, he ducked under one and implied the other with his axe. She shot the other one.

But more and more were coming, flying at a speed that almost boggled the mind. They were killing them quickly, but for every one they killed, two more seemed to attack. They were all shrieking, and the noise was not only alarming but distracting.

Yang couldn't help but appreciate how tougher this would be if Thor weren't keeping them a clear area to fight in. But it was getting harder with the nearly dead fire's light fading quickly.

But just as she killed one more of the Grimm, the shrieking stopped. The fog started to clear, and she was able to start to glimpse the sky again.

"This is bad." She said as Thor used his semblance to help disperse the fading fog.

"Clearly, that creature would have killed us we hadn't been able to keep a clearing."

"No, Thor I mean Grimm are rare on Patch, but these, I've never even read of them, something is very wrong, new species of Grimm are rare, but for them to be here out of the blue.."

"Hopefully, we'll figure this out, but we can't do anything about it right now." He was looking around and then suddenly stopped, and muttered "shit."

Looking where he was, she repeated his word. "Shit."

Her bike had been chewed into scrap.

* * *

"Why the hell would they do this?" She lamented as she looked to see if anything salvageable, which it was apparent it was not.

"I don't know, but I fear this species of Grimm is very intelligent, remeber when that one hit the fire? It was like it was trying to reduce our visibility because of the area I cleared."

She nodded in agreement. She'd been thinking the same thing, these Grimm were craftier than others. They tried to blind them and destroyed they're best means of escape. But how did they know what to attack?

"But they don't have eye's, how did they know what was what?"

"Your guess is as good as mine." He muttered, looking at her bike. "Guess we're walking to the port now."

* * *

They started on the road before the sun had even come up, they couldn't get back to sleep anyway, but they didn't want another encounter with those new Grimm again, and if more were in the area, they didn't want to have to tangle with them again.

The Port they were heading too would have been only maybe an hour away on the bike, but it would be at least an all day hike on foot. Yang was muttering they should have just gone to the port straight away, not bothered to rest. They would be on the boat by now, and her bike would be in one piece.

But, as he kept reminding her, it couldn't be undone. He knew she was aware of the reality of the situation, but needed to vent her frustration.

"So…what do you think we should name those new Grimm?" He said hoping to change the subject.

"What?"

"I mean, we discovered them, we could get to name them."

"Uuuh, okay." She began, rubbing her chin "How about…Shadow Strikes?"

Thor shrugged "That seemed more like a Grimm who hides in darkness, these things hide in mist, what about. 'Vapor trails'?"

Yang snorted a laugh "That's what you see a plane leave behind, doesn't really do them justice."

"I guess you're right." He said he faces crunching with concentration.

"Maybe something like 'Death Seekers'" she suggested.

"Hmm, better, but sound too much like 'Death Stalker' might be a bit confusing."

This was harder than either of them had originally thought "Well, let's list their traits. They're fairly small, quick, hunt in a pack, smart, and conjure mist to hide in."

They both thought on these traits for a while.

Then Yang snapped her fingers "Mist Mauraders. It's perfect, they come in the fog, attacks in groups and in sneak attacks, just like a group of bandits!"

Thor thought this over, it was pretty good he thought, better than anything he could come up with "Alright, 'Mist Marauders' it is, but I'm going to use 'Marauders' for short."

She punched him lighting in the arm "Okay, but you have to use the full name when ever I'm around."

"Why?"

"Uhhh…I'm your girlfriend, and I said so."

Thor nodded, unable to deny this logic "Alright if you insist."

After that, they covered old subjects, the mystery behind the attack, who was responsible, and where they were.

They covered old topics just to keep talking, because of both hated silence. But after the old topics were exhausted, they needed to move onto something new.

"So." Thor began, his tone serious "What are your plans for Adam?"

Yang stopped and looked at him. "What do you mean?"

"Are you going to go after him? He hurt you, and he hurt me. What I would be lying if I said I didn't want to even the score."

She looked confused, but responded "Thor, I want…to get him, he hurt me, you…Blake. I want him to pay, but I want to find my sister more." She finished this statement, but asked her own "Why, are you planning on hunting him down."

"No, I'm staying with you, and I'm gonna find Ruby, after that, I'm going do everything in my power to keep you two safe."

Yang rolled her eyes at this, but smiled at the sentiment "We can look after ourselves Thor, we don't need to be protected."

"I know that." He said in a whisper "It's selfish, but it's for my own peace of mind, to know you two are safe, protected, out of harm's way…"

"Thor…" she began but didn't know how to continue. "I mean, it's really sweet that you want to help us…"

"Yang, I know it's not needed, but I think you better get used to the idea…because I'm your boyfriend, and I said so."

Yang was taken aback by this for a moment, then she started to laugh, and punched him in the shoulder "Okay, smart-ass, fair enough."

After that short exchange, they continued on their way.

* * *

The Port came into view as the reached the top of a hill, and the sun was low in the sky. Had they not been close as they were, they might have set up camp for the night at this point.

But they soldiered on and got into the port town, and by this point, it was well into the night. Even this late at night it was busy, but the type of person who was to be seen at this point were dock workers or men on leave from their ships.

"We probably aren't going to get a ship that takes passengers tonight." Yang said, "We better find a place to sleep for the night."

"Indeed, I think I see a tavern up ahead." He said gesturing at a sign. "Let's see if they have rooms."

As it turned out they did and were surprisingly cheap. Once they were in the room, it was apparent why.

It had a single bed, no shower, and one sink.

"We could share the bed," Thor said as he put his bag down.

Yang walked over the radiator and examined it, and if she was going to guess, it hadn't worked in months. "Might be the best way to keep warm tonight, this thing hasn't worked in ages." She said kicking it for emphasis.

She turned and looked at Thor, who was already getting ready for bed.

Neither had eaten yet for the night, but she was so tired, that she didn't care. They could eat in the morning. She started to change herself.

This brought back vague memories of her time at Beacon, where Thor would change in full view of her team. She missed Weiss's reactions, Blake's pretended indifference, even he she snuck glances, and Ruby's oblivious nature to the attractive nature of their roommate.

She found herself missing those days, despite the fact they weren't that long ago.

She climbed into bed with Thor and felt his warm body against her's. "I miss them you know."

Thor looked at her confused, and she should clarify "My team, not just my sister, Blake, and Weiss too. Weiss might have been a little stuck up, and Blake was a little distant, but they were like a second family to me."

"I get that, sometimes the bonds formed by warriors are as strong as those of family."

Yang wondered if he was speaking from personal experience, but decided that was a question for another day. Right now, being this close to him, feeling his body heat, she felt a desired wash over her.

"Thor, let's stop talking, I'm…" she didn't know how to express the feeling she had in words, but she wanted them out. "I want to…" she was blushing at what she was implying.

This was because despite the flirty attitude she put forward, she had not ever really had a real relationship before this. She was still a virgin, and despite the physical intimacy they had before this, it hadn't ever progressed to the point of actual sex. But she wanted it now, all of a sudden.

"This isn't the place for that Yang, a cheap room in a tavern." He said kindly while rubbing her shoulder.

That was true, but that didn't shake the feeling or the desire. "Can't we do…something?"

She felt more embarrassed asking this than asking for actual sex, which was ridiculous, but it was still there.

She wondered if he even knew what she meant by it, but his expression on his face told her he did.

He didn't say anything, but she felt his hand slid down her stomach…and make its way lower.

* * *

The next morning, they woke up in each other arms and could tell that it was cold, but were warm in each other embrace.

"Yang, it's time to get up."

"It's too warm, let me stay here."

"Sorry.." he said and stood up pulled the blanket off her.

"Hey, asshole!" She shouted, and she wrapped her arms around herself to stay warm.

"Time to go, can't wait too long here. It could take us all day to find a charter to brings us to Mistral."

"Yeah, Yeah, just let me brush my teeth, no shower, damn I feel grody, haven't had a proper shower in a couple days."

"Well, you better get used to it, because we're going to go through periods of time where it will be even longer."

"I know, I know, geez, we'll go in a minute."

* * *

As it turned out, finding a charter ship hadn't been hard. But none were going directly where they wanted. Grimm activity in the open ocean had become far too common, and all ships were hugging the coast.

But they had found one that would get them close. They bought passage and boarded the boat.

They had a cabin to themselves, but it was hardly better than the room they shared the night in the port town. But they were only sleeping in there, they spent most of the day on the deck, talking, training in some manner or another, or tinkering with their weapons.

When Yang had a desire of the flesh, she could deal with it herself, or Thor helped her. They hadn't had actual sex yet. He didn't want that to happen in a crappy boat cabin or cheap tavern room, and she was in some ways thankful that he didn't want for it to happen in a place that was…cheap.

But she didn't know why this sudden feeling of…Of let's call it what it was, lust had come over her.

She supposed it was the need for affection, and in the lack of all other people she was close to that she was feeling the need for closeness more than ever.

But, she respected that he wanted to have their first time be special, or at least better than in a slum room.

She wanted it, but at the same time, she was glad she hadn't had it yet.

* * *

Yang was particularly aggressive regarding sex lately. Thor didn't know the workings of the human mind all that well, or any mind really. But he suspected that the idea they weren't assured tomorrow had pushed her over the edge in this regard.

He had experienced sex before, not in this body, but he didn't feel a desire to experience it like her.

But they had been intimate in other ways, and the seemed to keep her happy for now.

But he realized more and more with each passing day, he was becoming attached to her in ways he couldn't remember experiencing recently in his life. He, of course, had loved and loved mortals. But this was the first time he felt the same level of connection to one as they felt to him, or so he assumed.

That was because, before this, he knew he'd outlive any mortal he grew attached to. He felt he was mortal now, for real and permanently. That had changed his whole view on his relationship with mortals. Their lives were short, and he didn't know what waited on the other side for them.

Gods didn't experience death the same way mortals did, and it was scary for him to think about it in a new context. He was in new territory here, and it was making his bond with the mortals of this world differently than he had in the past.

But it wasn't all bad. He felt he could bond with the humans for the first time in his entire long life. He was incredibly close indeed to Ruby, and he and Yang had bonded in a relationship he would have thought were impossible for him to experience.

Set backs aside, he was pretty happy here. In some ways, he wished he didn't know what he was before, just that he'd been reborn here as a mortal, and left to develop here like an average person.

But his father moved in ways unknown to him, and his plan would reveal itself in do time, he knew from experience.

So until then, he'd enjoy being a mortal.

* * *

They departed the ship, this was a close as they'd get to their destination from it.

They'd gathered had they arrived a few weeks sooner they probably could have found a passage to any location they wanted, but the Grimm activity had been growing so badly, that travel by ship was severely limited, with Captain's unwilling to bring their ships into dangerous waters.

They had heard tales of Grimm activity growing, yet had not heard of anyone encountering the "Mist Mauraders," which made them both think it was some or of an intentional attack on them.

Yang had sent a message to her father detailing the event, with all the details she or Thor could remember, and the name they had given the Grimm.

They hadn't heard back, and as they traveled further out, they doubted they would. The CCT was gone, and short range communication was the only option left.

As they journeyed of the the port town, they wondered what awaited them.

* * *

"How far away do you think we are?" Yang said as they humped it along with an old dirt road.

"I'd say at least two weeks out, given where he got off the boat, maybe more."

"Figures, guess we better just keep trecking on."

"That's the best we can do for now," Thor said in response. "We'll get there, soon enough, and we'll find Ruby."

She smiled at this, and he smiled back.

* * *

On the third day of their travels, they came upon a shell of a town. It had been sacked recently, and judging by the signs of human inflicted damage, by bandits.

Grimm had come after that, drawn in by the negative emotions.

It was clear they were several days too late to offer any level of help. Survivors would have left or been dead by now.

"This is what happens when the world loses order," Yang muttered.

"What?" Thor said turning to look at her.

"Without proper communication, order falls apart, and then chaos reigns." She said somberly.

Thor still didn't understand what exactly she was getting at. But he felt he got jist, the failure of wide spread communication had resulted in an increase in this bandit activity.

"We need to move on Yang, this area will keep attracting Grimm,"

She didn't respond immediately but eventually followed him out of the town.

* * *

"Tell me about your dad," Yang said as they got outside of the decimated town.

The request caught him off guard, this was not a topic she'd ever approached before. He could only guess something about the village had sparked this, although, in what way, he could only guess.

But at any rate, he decided to answer, at least a bit.

"He is…Strong, but stoic. He knows things other's can't understand and is…distant because of it. But he cares about his children, even if it's not apparent at first."

Yang didn't answer right away, but eventually did "Sounds like a good dad."

Thor laughed at his "Not exactly, he is a near perfect leader, but as far as a father goes, he is lacking in some areas," he paused for a moment after this comment before asking. "What about your mother?"

* * *

Yang knew this question was likely to be coming, but that didn't make her want to answer it anymore.

"I never knew my biological mother, Summer was my real mother in most respects. From what I've been able to gather, she's not exactly mother material. She left my dad right after I was born." She hesitated at this point. "I've wanted to find her for a long time, but now, I'm not so sure I even want to. She didn't care to be there for me growing up, or at any other point in my life, I don' think I want a relationship with her."

Thor couldn't help but feel sympathy for her at her description of her mother, but he felt a bit of a connection at this point as well, his own mother wasn't involved in his life either, and he'd only just learned her identity.

Their situations weren't the same, but he still felt a sense of kinship with her over the issue.

"Yang, good or bad, you deserve to know why your mother decided to leave you behind. After this ordeal is resolved, I will help you continue your search."

She smiled at this. "Thank you, Thor, I still want to know why, even if it's bad, I feel the need to know."

They didn't talk much for the rest of the day after that, but they didn't feel' the need to, they had reached an unspoken understanding of each other in this regard.

* * *

That night, they made camp and set up there sleeping bags and rolls next to each other.

They had tended to avoid larger camp fires recently and opted to keep each other warm during most nights. They knew that keeping smaller fire was less likely to attract attention from Grimm or bandits.

But there was also the fact that they wanted to be close to each other physically, not sexually, but just having another living person close to them, was comfortable in a way that neither fully understood, or cared to. They found comfort in it, and that was good enough for them.

They had also been following Thor's idea of hunting and fishing, mostly fishing, as tonight they were cooking a few fish over the low flame of their campfire.

Yang had to admit this was helpful in keeping their long lasting supplies for a longer period of time, and she did appreciate the fresher food, even if she didn't really like fish.

But she knew they'd be in Minsteal within the week, so it wasn't hard for her to cope with.

The thought or reuniting with her sister pushed any thought of discomfort out of her mind, and allowed her to deal with any hardship or distress,

Not that she thought of eating fish as such, but she'd been through some distressful situations on this journey, like finding the "Mist Mauraders."

But she'd face Adam and army of Whitfang extremist to find her sister. She hadn't been ready to go with her when she left, and she regretted it.

She was going to make up for it, by being there for her for everything else.

* * *

 **A/N: Okay, so here is the next chapter. I'd like for a few reviews this chapter if you could.**

 **I want to improve and need feed back to do so.**


	8. Road goes ever on

**A/N" Okay, a few things.**

 **First I'd like to thank Jawaswag Jenkins, noble4259, and MarcussMebadd for reviewing my last chapter.**

 **Notes for improvement have been taken, and I'm trying to do a better job proof reading my chapters. But I'm sure you must know proof reading your own work isn't nearly as effective as having someone else do it. You mind just sort of fills in what you know as the writer you wanted there. This is one of my biggest weaknesses that I just can't seem to overcome on my own, I'm terrible at proof reading my own work. I try very hard to, but I've got some issues that compound the problem more than it would be normally.**

 **I tried to make this chapter better, but I'm confident I still missed tones.**

 **Still looking for a Beta Reader, if anyone knows anyone who'd be interested.**

 **Didn't meant to ramble there, because issues I'm having with writing this aside, I'm breaking the 100k word count with this chapter, which I feel if a bit of an accomplishment.**

 **Well here's the story, make sure to leave a review and tell me what you think.**

* * *

Chapter 7

* * *

They were half way through the second week of travel when Thor realized that he had drastically underestimated the time this would take.

Under normal conditions, he thought he might have been close, but this was not normal conditions. Grimm activity had spiked considerably, and Bandits were far more brazen with their attacks. Roads were shut down, and services between towns were more or less cut off.

But the terrain was much harder to navigate than he had expected as well, and with no way to pass through the wilderness except on foot, this was proving to be a much harder trek than he had expected.

But he wasn't getting out of temper over it, it was unavoidable.

Yang, however, was getting irritated, even if she didn't say it out loud, he could see it in her mood, how she talked, and her general attitude.

He didn't think it was the ruffing it part that was agitating her, she had adapted to that like a fish to water. No, he suspected that it was more that she was going to be delayed in meeting up with her sister again.

He wanted to talk to her about it, but he had the feeling that wouldn't do any good. She was going to worry no matter what he said, and would probably just agitate her more if he did.

He felt somewhat responsible, having given her a time frame they were clearly not going to make now.

As they set down for the night to camp, Thor pulled out a can of chili, they hadn't found anything fresh to eat, so it was canned food again. It wasn't really all that bad, but it was certainly starting to lose its appeal.

The fire going, they both sat there in silence as their food cooked.

The silence was killing him, but this was how it had been for the past few nights, as it became more and more apparent they weren't going to make it to their destination on the schedule he predicted. He'd messed that up, but it couldn't be helped now, and he frankly didn't want this to be the rest of the journey.

"Yang, I'm sorry this is taking so long." Was all he could think to say, it was a weak start, but he didn't have anything else to say really.

She looked at him, a bit confused, and answered: "It's not your fault, I mean, all the chaos and hazards, of course, it's taking longer."

Well, at least she wasn't blaming him, but her attitude was still sour. "You've just been distant, you aren't talking…"

"I'm just worried, I worried about my sister, I'm worried about my friends, and I worried that what the hell is going on in the world."

He got that, but those feeling weren't new, she was still much more talkative before they'd departed the boat and into the first few days of the journey.

"You've still gotten really quiet over these past few days."

"I know, I'm sorry if it seemed like I was mad at you, I'm not, I promise, it's just. Well, I thought we were closer than we were, and finding out we're not…Just makes me think of how little we can control on this journey. I mean, I knew there be set backs, but with time frames shifting and things taking longer…I just worry more that's all, that if something were to happen to Ruby and I wasn't there because of something that slowed me down or stopped me. I don't know it just makes me dwell on what can go wrong."

"Well, they say anything that can go wrong, will. Or at least that's a good way to plan for any event. But it's not doing you any good dwelling on things you can't control."

Yang opened her mouth to respond, but Thor continued "I know it doesn't really help, you're still going to do it, and I'm still going to do it. But when you're overloaded with bad thoughts or what can go wrong, I find it helps to think of what will go right, or what I'll do when I see my friends again."

"You think that will fix this?"

"No, it won't, but it can help boost your mood, make you feel better, cope."

She rolled her shoulders at this suggestion. Thor knew it would in no way stop the concerns, but in his experience focusing on positive things helped to curb the melancholy that these types of thoughts brought on.

"Okay, so you tell me? What do you imagine doing once we see our friends again?" She asked her face impassive, even curious.

Thor smiled at the question because he had thought of it, quite a few times. "First I'm going to go up to Ruby and tell her I'm alive."

Yang's eye's bulged at this "Oh shit, that's right, she doesn't know you alive!" She smiled at this "She's gonna be thrilled to see you."

Thor laughed a little at this "If she can recognize me…"

"Thor…you might look…" She began before Thor spoke again.

"Without my hammer, I doubt she'll give me so much as a second glance." He finished smiling.

Yang felt a slight sense of relief at this, she didn't like the idea of Ruby not recognizing Thor, not only because it might hurt Thor, but Ruby may not handle the thought of someone she cared about being so badly hurt. She had lost an arm, and Ruby did not take that well at all.

"After that." Thor continued, I'm gonna have her show me around the city, to show me what she's managed to find while she's been there." He stopped and looked at her, "What about you, what do you plan on doing?"

She hadn't thought of it, and he knew it, but she felt the mood lightening "I'm gonna take her out to dinner, treat my little sister to a nice big dinner." She said, knowing it was sort of a vauge idea, but it felt right. "What about the others? Jaune, Ren and Nora?"

Thor smiled at this "Taking Nora to a Pancake house, and Ren…well he's always been more subdued, I think just catching up with him will be okay. Jaune…he's a special case."

She knew that, of everyone in their inner circle, he may of experience the most traumatic and personal loss with Pyrrha's death. They had been partners, and Yang knew Pyrrha had liked him much more than a friend. It hadn't gone anywhere, and now it never would. She didn't know if Jaune knew how she felt or not, but if he did, she imagined the idea of "What If" was probably haunting him.

"I'm going to talk to him first, then buy him a beer second. That much I know so far, I'll play the rest by ear with him."

* * *

Yang had felt like a knot in her stomach she didn't even know was there had loosened. Not disappeared, but the tension had eased.

She supposed this idea had merits. Keeping positive thoughts in your head helped keep your mood up. The idea of the look on Ruby's face when she saw them again, that was something to look forward to.

The thoughts of disasters still hung around the back of her mind, but she still was feeling much better.

"So…how long do you think now?" she asked, knowing he was still a bit sore over his own miscalculation.

"I honestly don't know. It could be another week, it could be a month." He said as he started to eat his food "If we could go straight there, uninterrupted by any sort of hostile activity, and get a few rides, I'd say a week. But that hasn't been our luck so far."

She'd expected he wouldn't be willing to make an outright statement, but she knew he could give a general estimate, and now that he was more familiar with the travel conditions, she thought it might be more accurate now.

"too bad, we can't just fly there. You used to be able to do it, but I guess that went with your hammer huh?"

He nodded "Even then, it wouldn't have carried us both that far, it would have burned out before we reached our destination."

"Ehh, still, would be nice to cut the journey short by a bit."

He nodded as he took in another mouth full of chili.

They sat in silence again, but this time it lacked the tension of the previous one. It was comfortable, and she felt no need to speak at the moment, just deciding to eat and watch Thor.

The light of the fire made the scars on his face look much deeper and more pronounced, and frankly, he looked much older now than he did before the fall of Beacon.

His beard had grown out again, and while he wasn't shaving it off, he was attempting to keep it trimmed. His hair had grown out a bit as well from the start of this journey. It was fairly long, although not as long as he had kept it before, and he kept it swept back.

The scarring on the right side of his face had kept hair and heard from fully growing on that side, and a few patched were missing from the rest of his beard where laceration scars crisscrossed his face.

The only thing that hadn't changed drastically was his one remaining eye. His personality still shined through it, his kindness, his courage, and his compassion. But it had taken on a sad look now, no wonder given the past few months.

His appearance had been the most drastically changed of anyone's she knew personally from the fall. He probably beat out anyone she knew in general or had even heard of from life altering injuries. He did look like a different person, and he even acted differently.

He had come close to what he was at school, but he'd lost a lot of the flare and confidence he used to carry himself with. This had made her wonder how much of that was a show to begin with.

He certainly put on a show for Ruby when she was scared, but even that had broken near the end. The second night of visions he hadn't bothered to brag or boast to comfort her. He did promise to look after her and protect them all.

He hadn't managed that, but he'd done his best, and she wasn't going to hold that against him, especially what he'd lost trying to even the score.

As she thought of this, her mind wandered back to Adam, and how she wanted to get even with him for everything he'd done to her, Thor and Blake.

"Thor…" she said finally breaking the silence.

"Hmmm?"

"When we find Adam, and I know we will, do you want to take him or should I?"

Thor didn't answer right away but thought for a moment "If we find him, we should take him together, give how we both faired against him last time. At full strength, I think I could take him, but I'm far from that. You are much better than you were, but he was on my level at the time, and I don't believe your there yet."

"So what, you want to double team him?"

"Exactly, he's too dangerous to fight him like it's a sport or competition, we need to be able to take him down quickly because if we don't, I think he's going to just drag the fight out until he can finish it."

"Why would you say that?"

"I think his semblance is like yours, I think he can absorb attack damage and send it back out, but he focuses it into his weapon, not his body, so he doesn't get hurt."

"Hmmmp, copycat." She muttered, "But how did you figure this out?"

"I had a lot of time to dwell on my fight with him, and I've realized he was blocking attacks he shouldn't have been able to, like my lighting, it shouldn't have mattered that he blocked it, it should have conducted down the blade."

"Okay, that makes sense, but how do you know he absorbed the damage?"

"When he cut my leg and my vest. He shouldn't have been able to do that with just one swing, he had to amplify it somehow."

Yang nodded at this and thought about. "So…we need to hit him hard and end it quickly, right."

Thor pointed to her and said "Exactly."

* * *

That evening, Yang woke up in the middle of the night. At first, in his waking haze, thought she was being woken up again to deal with an attack. But it was evident after a few seconds that wasn't the case.

Looking around, she was trying to find what had woken her up, because she was sure something had done it. She didn't have to go to the bathroom, and the fire was still burning. It was low, mostly embers now, but still producing warmth.

A sudden thrashing sound made her turn around quickly, weapons ready, only to see Thor in his sleeping bag.

Lowering her gauntlets, a confused look dawned on her face. 'What was he doing?' she thought, he was clearly still asleep. Walking closer to his side, she looked closer, and yes, he was clearly still sleeping.

But his face was twisted in pain and terror. He was letting out gasps, and whimpers. A bad dream, that was evident. But was it a vision? She didn't think so, given as far she knew when ever he had one, everyone sleeping around him had them as well.

But was that right? Three instances wasn't precisely a lot of data for a pattern from. And she didn't know if he was having them without telling her or anyone else.

But she also knew he'd had stress-dreams in the past as well. He hadn't had them in weeks now, and she had honestly thought he'd moved past them. But as she the thought it, she knew that wasn't how these things worked. One the things all combat school's covered was reactions to combat, and PTSD was one of those syndromes people developed.

Dreams were part of that, and even if the individual suffering from it seemed to be over it, the dreams could come back at seemingly random points.

She reached down to wake him up but stopped. She remembered that waking someone up in the middle of a stress-dream could result in the person, not immediately realizing they were awake. In the case of a Hunter, especially one as strong as Thor, he might try and attack her. He could hurt her, or she could hurt him.

So instead, she sat next to him and put his head in her lap. She gently ran her finger through his hair and hummed a melody to him.

She didn't know if this would work, but she didn't want to risk waking him up. But this seemed to calm him down a bit, his face was relaxing, and his body wasn't as tense. In a way, it reminded her of how Ruby used to have bad dreams when she was younger.

She'd done this for Thor once before, but he was awake when they came to the agreement for her to sleep next to him, and that had kept him from slipping back into the dreams. She wasn't sure if doing it this way would work, and if it did she wasn't sure if it would work as well.

But Thor was starting to sleep more soundly, and much more calmly. She had actually been surprised that he didn't wake up when she'd moved his head, given how distressed he was. But he'd always been a sound sleeper for as long as she had known him, and he was clearly deep in the throws of the dreams.

She wasn't sure, but she thought she might of read somewhere that when a person was dreaming, that was when they were at the deepest point of sleep. That was probably why he didn't wake up so quickly.

Looking down into his face, she should see that he was much more relaxed, and his breathing had become slow and even.

Taking one hand, she lifted his sleeping bag to see if he'd wet himself this time. With a sigh of relief, she saw that he hadn't. They had never talked about it the few times it had happened, it was too embarrassing, for both of them. She didn't think less of him for it, but it scared her that someone could be so terribly scared that it could happen, especially someone like Thor who gave off the impression of being so fearless and tough.

She'd had it happen to herself a few times after her fight with Adam, but she'd been in place to care of herself, and no one knew about it, not even her father.

It was stupid to be ashamed of it, it wasn't like they were little kids who couldn't control themselves, they were being terrorized in their sleep by a traumatic event.

She somehow felt that if they could find Adam, and beat him, these episodes might stop. She still had a few episodes, but they weren't at the frequency or magnitude of what Thor was experiencing now, or had been before his recovery.

Because they had dropped off, even appearing to stop after she'd taken him to the hot spring. In fact, she thought this was the first time he'd had one since then.

She decided to think of this as an improvement because they weren't as common now, and his reaction wasn't nearly as bad.

Running the back of her hand over his forehead, she felt that he was sweating like before, but it wasn't as bad as before either.

But she knew that some sort of professional help would be needed at some point. Not just for him, but her as well, she didn't really understand the human mind, but she knew that trauma just didn't go away, it could dull with time, but if left unchecked, even if it seemed to go away, it could come back, just like now.

She doubted for either them that it would ever go away, but they needed to find healthy ways to cope. She'd caught a glimpse of Thor developing poor coping mechanisms when he was in the deepest parts of his depression, his drinking, even at the hot spring it had shown up.

She still didn't know where he was getting his alcohol when he'd been recovering in their home, but she was glad to see he didn't need it now. He wasn't drinking, except the one beer she'd brought on the first night, and didn't seem to have any real desire for it.

He wasn't addicted to the booze but had he continued on the path he'd been on, she had no doubt he would be eventually.

She didn't want him to go down that path, and she didn't want to end up that way herself. Instead of drinking, she'd thrown herself into taking care of him while he was with them, but if he hadn't been there as a distraction, she didn't know what she might have done.

She didn't want either of them to go down that path, and she didn't think they were at that point, and it didn't seem like they were on they way down it either.

Still, it worried her. It was in her nature to worry about others, and what she might turn into. She knew about her family history, and she didn't want to repeat some of their mistakes. Her Uncle Qrow, she loved him very much, but he had a drinking problem, and she didn't want that. Her mother had floated out of her life before she could even remember her. Two-thirds of her biological family had some serious issue, and her dad was sometimes known to have bouts of depression.

Personal issues of some kind or another seemed to run in her family.

Everyone had hangups, but her family appeared to have a bit more than normal.

Or maybe she was overly sensitive to the idea, and she was just worrying for no reason.

Taking a deep breath, she tried to relax, worrying about these things weren't things she could deal with right now. She'd address them at some point, but out here in the woods, in the middle of the night with her boyfriend having a night terror, was not the time to handle it.

* * *

Thor woke up feeling distinctly unrested and worn out. He felt thirsty too, and he sat up with that thought. Reaching over to his canteen, he popped the top off and took a long drink.

He'd had a nightmare last night, he knew it, the general sense of terror had lingered on when he'd woken up, but he couldn't remember the content. Less of a nightmare, this was more of a night terror.

But he hadn't woken up in the night, and he hadn't sweated through his cloaths this time. He felt damp, but it wasn't as bad as it had been in the past.

Getting up, he looked around and noticed Yang was gone. Her sleeping bag and end roll were still by the fire, but she wasn't anywhere to be found.

His blood started to run cold. He'd experienced this before, waking up with no one around.

"Good, you're up." He heard a voice call from behind him and turned to see Yang coming out of the woods. "There a stream over there if you want to clean up a bit, it's cold, but it clean."

Looking her over, he noticed her hair and face were wet, indicating he'd taken the morning to refreshen up.

"Yeah, sounds like a good idea." He knelt down and picked up his canteen, intending to fill it while he was there.

Just seeing her made his heart rate slow down. The dreams of wandering around in an abandoned world had scared him, he thought they had come back, given the night terror he had the night before. But it was just that she'd taken the chance to clean up, not that he'd been left alone.

The feeling of loneliness he'd been experiencing had waned considerably in the past few weeks. In part, because he felt he had someone to share his life with right now. But he also was of the opinion that he felt he knew why he was here, to be a mortal. The more he made peace with that, the more he felt he could relate to the humans he encountered.

He didn't think he'd ever totally shake the feeling of isolation, not completely because he couldn't undo his previous life, he'd live too long to ever really been able to think like a normal person, not entirely. But he'd curb the feeling considerably.

But he wondered about something that had floated at the back of his mind for years now, that he'd never really given much attention to until recently. Would he tell anyone his past? Could he, may have been a better question. He'd never thought it would be an issue, that he'd just be able to prove it when he reclaimed his power. But that possibility seemed to be less and less likely, and without that proof, who would believe him?

He's tried going that route before, and if he couldn't show who and what he was, people tended to think he was crazy. He hadn't realized why until he'd spent time with them, but mortal did not usually have gods come down from the heavens stroll among thm. They'd believe it if there was some sort of show of power, but human claiming to be the god of thunder, with nothing to indicate it was true, was generally written off as someone who was mentally unstable. If he couldn't show his power, then they wouldn't believe him, well most wouldn't believe him.

But this issue was compounded by the idea that he was likely going to live out his days here in a normal human body. That would mean, more or less, lying to anyone he was close to, because he'd have to hide his whole previous life, and as far as they were concerned, the first fourteen or fifteen years of his life.

His friends may not have inquired yet to any significant degree, but if he stayed longer, eventually they'd get curious. They couldn't find anything, but they would ask him, and he'd with have to stay quiet, tell them a lie, or tell them the truth.

None of those were good options to him. Lying may be easiest, but he didn't want to lie. He'd given partial information in the past out of necessity, but out right lying didn't sit well with him. Keeping quiet would work in the short term, but eventually, they'd get tired of it and push him.

The truth, which he wanted to do, but would risk them committing him to an insane asylum.

He'd have to figure this out eventually, but right now, he'd leave the issue be.

* * *

As they moved out for the day, they talked, but both could feel it was being forced out. Neither thought the other was mad or upset, but both could feel the mood was heavy with thoughts weighing on their minds.

"Whats bothering you?" Yang finally asked, deciding to cut straight to the point.

Thor looked surprised, but didn't try to divert the question "Just…Been thinking about those dreams." Which was true.

"Which one? The Vision or the Nightmares?"

"Both, I suppose. I can't get the vision out of my mind but know I don't have the ability to figure out what's going with it." He took a deep breath "The Nightmares are…different. Sometimes it's about the…Fall of Beacon. But other times they're vaguer…"

"Like what?"

He rolled his shoulders and rocked his head from side to side before answering "Usually I'm alone, the world seemingly devoid of any person or animal, and no matter how much I shout and search, I can't find anyone."

That didn't sound good, but it didn't sound like it should be causing the reactions he was having either. She assumed that the time he was having a partially bad night, he was dreaming of the fall of Beacon.

"What about you?" He asked, "What's on your mind?"

"Oh." She sighed "Same old same old, I keep worrying, I'm trying not to let it get to me as much. Like you said, I'm trying focus on the good, but I still can't push the thoughts out of my mind."

He put his hand on her shoulder and massaged it with his thumb. "I know, it's normal to worry, I worry too, but it isn't going to do us any good. I know we won't stop, but we need to keep out spirits up and can't let the worry control our lives."

"You pretty smart when you want to be huh?" She smiled and punched him lightly, which was becoming a habit of her to show affection. "You know what's funny?"

"What's that?"

"I didn't know your name till, after initiation, I didn't even realize it until we thought you weren't going to make it past the first day."

"Oh really? And here I thought I was known far and wide for the student body. I'm not sure if my ego will ever recover." He smiled as he spoke in a falsely hurt tone.

"Smart ass." She muttered but grinned none the less.

"So what else don't I know about our shared time at Beacon?" He said as they continued to hike.

"Oh tons, we girls keep plenty of secrets from the boys."

"Yeah yeah, like what?"

"Oh, crushes, weapon secrets, stuff like that."

"That second one sounds like Ruby more than the 'other girls.'"

"Well, more or less. Sometimes we'd talk about the weapon, more for Ruby's sake though because it was one of the only things she really liked and we didn't want to box her out. She didn't like any boy's though, so we never got into those talks with her."

"Well, if she liked girls-"

"Not what I meant Thor, I mean she didn't like anyone like that, it's weird. She's almost sixteen, but as far as I know, she's never had any sort of crush on anyone, boy or girl." She sighed in an exasperated tone "That's another thing I worry about with her, she doesn't take to people as quickly as I do, I worry if she's going to be alone."

They continued on for a while before she continued "You know I thought she had a crush on you for a while?"

"Did you know? Why would you think that?"

She laughed "Well, after her first runs in with you, she didn't shut up with 'How mean' you were, you know after you scared her the first day."

Thor nodded "Yes, I remember that incident, but I wasn't aware she was that upset with me."

"Yeah, well you wouldn't, given how she talked about you after the initiation, she wouldn't shut up about how 'awesome' you were, after seeing what you could do." She laughed again "I thought she was just being a kid and being mad at the guy she had a crush on for being mean to her or something like that."

They were both laughing at this now "How did you figure out that wasn't the case?"

"She told me she was trying to get you to go out with me. I told her I thought she liked you, but she just went on about how you're her 'Big Brother' with the 'Coolest Weapon ever.'"

They both had a good laugh at this "I should have know that little weapons nerd was just obsessing over your hammer."

"Well, from what I've seen of you, you'd like to get a hold of my hammer as well."

"Not at all, I'm fine with…." She trailed off and looked at him, eyes wide, not quite sure if he'd actually gone there. His big stupid grin told her that he had. She laughed and punched him again "A dick joke, real classy Thor."

He pretended to flinch away but was laughing "What, I thought you'd appreciate it!"

"Yeah, I do, doesn't make it classy." She was still smiling. "But I got to admit that 'Mole-near' or "Moo-jar,' or what you called it was something else, Ruby was right to be impressed." She said as she continued to walk.

She had gone several steps before she realized that Thor wasn't keeping pace with her.

She turned to see he had stopped and was looking at her, eye wide and mouth hanging open."

"What?"

* * *

Thor just stared at her, how did she know that name? She hadn't managed to say it correctly, but he's never named his weapon system, or even mentioned his real hammer.

"What did you call my hammer?"

"Did I not say it right? Sorry, didn't know it was a big deal, but it's hard to pronounce."

"My weapon didn't have a name." he said coolly.

"What, sure it did, it…." Yang trailed off as she tried to think of when he's told them what his weapon was called. But she couldn't remember him ever doing it, but he must have, all Hunters and Huntresses named their weapons. Thor must have told her at some point, it was such a weird name she couldn't have confused it with something else…

The book, she'd read the name in that book Blake had found. That was the name of the Thunder gods weapons, and he and Thor had such similarities, that she was sure he'd based himself off him, that she had thought his weapon shared the same name.

That wasn't what concerned her, but more the fact she let slip that she and the rest of her team had found something that very likely related to him, and hadn't talked to him about it at all.

"How do you know that name?" he asked coolly.

Well, time to come clean, hopefully, he wouldn't be upset that they hadn't ever told him about it.

"Thor, back when we were at Beacon, well, your past was sort of mystery to us, and well, Blake and Weiss started digging around to find out information on you. But they couldn't find anything, not really anyway, just some of the stuff you told us." She paused to examine his face for signs of anger, but he just looked like he was concentrating on her story. He took a deep breath and continued "But Blake found this book and ancient one. It was about an extinct group of people called Vikings. In there we found their god of thunder "Thor," and…well it just seemed to match to many points, and we figured, you know…Adopted the persona, and guess I just assumed you'd name your hammer after his."

She thought his face fell a bit at this, although she wasn't sure why it would if anything she thought he'd be mad they found something about him and didn't tell him they had.

"I see." He said and started to walk towards and past her.

"Thor!" She yelled after him, only to realize that may not have been his real name "I'm sorry, we just didn't want to assume anything or make you upset!"

* * *

He was angry, but not for the reason she thought. When she mentioned his hammer, he thought his father may have told her in some way who he was. But it was just a book…A book that had no business being in a world where his people had never been worshipped.

The realization of this made him stop and turn to Yang. "Where is this book now?"

"I don't know, probably with Blake." She said, confused by the sudden shifts between his moods. "You want to tell what this is about?"

Thor looked suddenly like he'd been poleaxed like he'd gotten ahead of himself and now realized he'd been caught at something.

"I'm afraid I can't, not without that book." He needed to word his next few words very carefully."Yang, the reason I didn't tell all of you more is…I really can't, I don't know the whole story." Which was true, he didn't know it, why he was here "But that book, it might hold the answers I need."

Not a lie strictly speaking, but certainly misleading, and he hated himself for doing it. But the alternative was to make those he'd formed a bond with think he was crazy, and either drives them away, for forever be pitied by them for a perceived mental state.

"Well, if that's the case, we're going to have to find Blake, he had it. But I don't know where she is…" she trailed off with a note of sadness in her voice.

Thor knew she and Blake had been close, much closer than she was to any of the person other than her sister. Her disappearance had hurt her badly. They had been so close Thor wondered at times if they were more than friends, but aside from Ruby, he hadn't close enough to anyone in Team RWBY at the time to really know. If they had been together, Yang apparently considered it over now.

But that point aside, he needed to find her, but he had a job to do first "We're going to find your sister before anything else Yang, then we'll get your team back together, when that happens, I'll have the book." Placing his hand on her shoulder, he massaged it gently " I'm not going to die from not having a book, it can wait a little while longer."

She smiled sadly at this, but her mind was clearly on her broken team. He could relate, not that he could tell her, but he'd been on shattered teams before, and it hurt, it hurt almost like you'd lost a family member.

* * *

Thor couldn't know how guilty she felt at the dissolving of her team. Some of it had been beyond her control, but she still felt more responsibility for the breakup of Team RWBY than any of the others.

"It's my fault, Thor, why were scattered to the winds like this." She felt tears coming on as she talked about it.

"What are you talking about, you-"

She cut him off "Maybe not Weiss, but I'm the one Adam hurt and made Blake feel like she needed to leave, Ruby went off looking for answers, and I was too wrapped up in my own issues to go with her. I was the one who hurt Mercury and started this chain of events. If I was just smarter, Stronger, tougher none of this…"

Suddenly she found herself in his embrace, hugging her tightly. "You are strong and smart but most of all brave." He whispered in her ear. "You can't wonder 'what if' that way leads madness and despair. You have to focus on the future." He broke the embrace looked into her eye's with his one startling blue one.

It was times like this when he surprised her most when he showed a particular insight into the moment. It was so easy to overlook this trait of his. Again he reminded her of her sister, with hidden depths often overlooked.

He placed his hand, his real one, behind her head, and tilted it forward and kissed her on the forehead.

That was another thing, he could be so tender when he wanted.

"We can't dwell on these things, we need to focus on the task at hand."

She wiped the tears out of her eyes, laughing a bit "You're right, you're right, it's just, I can't help it sometimes."

"Well, you can't help it." He said smiling "You're the team mom."

"What!" She near shouted, pushing him away and punching him in the shoulder. "I am not!"

"You worry about everyone, make sure everyone is eating right, you take care of everyone, you're the team mom."

"Pfft, I'm the team party girl! If anything Weiss was the team mom!"

"I didn't say you were a responsible parent."

They stared at each other for a moment, their faces stern. But Yang saw the corner of his mouth crack a shadow of a grin, and that was all it took before they started breaking out in laughter.

"Let's keep up the pace." Yang said, " If we want to catch up to Ruby, we gotta keep moving."

They started walking again, the occasional laugh still slipping out before either of them really spoke again.

Yang spoke first "That book." She began solely, not wanting to touch on any sore spots, but still wanting to know more "what do you think it will tell you?"

Thor glanced sideways at her, but the ghost of his laughter was still on his face, and he didn't seem upset. "I don't know, to be honest, but… I can't imagine it doesn't hold something about my past. The connections you mentioned, it can't be a coincidence."

"So, your name really is Thor Odinson? You didn't adopt it?"

Thor knew he'd have answered this question carefully "Yes, that's what my father named me, that much at least I know is true."

Yang's shoulder's relaxed a tension she didn't even know she had. She was happy to know he wasn't lying to them, or more specifically to her. "So, are you saying that you don't actually remember your life before the orphanage."

"Well, not exactly, You know I have memories of my father and my life before. More like I can't remember some amount of time between when I was sent away, and when I found and brought to the orphanage."

"Yeah, that's right." She said out loud, remembering that he'd given them some information. "So, it's more like you missing a block of time?"

He shrugged at this "More or less."

"Well, at least you can remember your dad, I don't even know my mom."

"Well, you're not that far off from me in that regard. I found out, not so long ago, that the woman I had thought my whole life was my mother, wasn't. The woman who gave birth to me, I've never meet."

"Ohh…guess we have something else in common too, but I kind of wish we didn't."

He got understood her meaning, not that she wished they didn't have something in common, but rather it wasn't a pleasant experience for either of them.

"I don't want to stay on these downer topics too long," Yang said as they walked on. "I get that we have to talk about this stuff, but if we just talk about the bad things in our life, well, it can't be good for morale."

"No, it's not, so let's try for a change of subject." Thor rubbed his bearded chin with his real hand, trying to think of a topic for discussion. "Okay, how's this for a new topic. What was your first impression of me? Not second or third impressions, The first time you saw me, what did you think."

"Ohhh, that's not gonna be a pretty discussion." She said in a tone somewhere between a laugh and a groan. "Honestly? I thought you were just another one of those muscle bound meat heads who was good athletically, but not good for much else. Really, when I saw you and Cardin on the first day, I thought 'O God, there's two of them!', but as I got to know you, I saw that wasn't totally correct. I mean yeah, you were a loud and pretty cocky guy, but it wasn't all talk, and I saw that you were more than that anyway." She finished grinning sheepishly but was relieved to notice he didn't look remotely angry, just amused. "Okay, you turn now, what was your first impression of me big guy?"

"Well, to be honest, I didn't take much notice of you at first, at least on the first day." He said, and she looked a little confused and maybe slightly offended at this "By that, I mean, there was so much going on around me, and you didn't cause any sort of spectacle to draw my attention, like I know I did when I arrived. But I did think 'That there is a gorgeous girl,' and the little bit I saw of you told me you might be more than a little bit of an extrovert."

"That's it?" She said, a bit disappointed.

"Like I said, you didn't make a spectacle of yourself or say anything like Ruby blowing herself and Weiss up, or Jaune wearing an onesie to bed. But, If we count the first time I actually interacted with you, I'll say that was a much more impressive impression, then I thought "Wow, she's a ball of fire." After seeing you fight."

"Well, that's better." She said, seeming slightly mollified. "Guess a quiet first impression is better than a bad one."

"That's one way to look at it." He said with a shrug, and they continued on their way.

* * *

As they came over the top of another hill, they were surprised to see a village in the valley beneath them. What's more this one looked occupied.

"Strange, I didn't think there were any settlements in this area," Yang said as she pulled out a map to check again.

"Look there," Thor said pointing at one of the building, the scaffolding still surrounding it. "That's why this place is still being built."

"Weird, I would think of thought all new settlements would have pulled back to the cities."

"Most probably did, but I'm going guess the people here are motivated by something fairly strong to stay," Thor said as trekked towards it, thinking it would be nice to have a bed for a change.

"Like what?"

Thor shrugged "Money if it's a mining town, sense of freedom maybe, stubbornness is likely as well. We can find out once were in the town."

As they approached the town, the noticed the walls were unusually high, and the automated gun turrets on top spoke of a settlement started with a fairly large amount of money invested.

As they got the main gate, they were surprised to see heavy steel doors closed, barring there a way in.

"So what, do we knock?" Yang asked, but instead was greeted by a call from the top of the wall.

"Who goes there?" the voice called.

Thor responded, "Travelers, looking for a place to stay for the night!"

"Are you hunters?" the faceless voice called.

Thor and Yang exchanged glances before answering "Yes!", making to shout loud enough to be heard.

"Good!" was all they heard, then the steel doors started to open.

This wasn't an ordinary town, that much was clear, whether this was because of recent events or that was how it was meant to be, they'd probably find out soon, and walked over the threshold to the town.

The first thing they noticed was that despite the fact the town looked occupied, people were not walking around, at least not in crowds.

The voice that had addressed them from the wall came from behind them now and turned to see a town watchman coming behind them. He was a small, slight man, who didn't look like he was ready to fight anyone or anything. "Glad you've finally come, we didn't know if our message had gotten to anyone."

Thor and Yang exchanged looks, both thinking the same thing, they'd been mistaken for the hunter or hunters this village had sent for.

"I'm sorry, but we weren't sent for or hired, we're just traveling to Mistral," Yang said, and as she did, the watchman's face fell. "But!" she began quickly "If you need help, we'll help you! Just tell us what you need!"

The watchman smiled at this "Wonderful! You'll want to head to the town hall, it's straight down the road." He said point "You can see it from here, you'll be able to find everything out there."

With that, he climbed back onto the wall.

They both looked down the road to the town hall, and looked at each other for a moment, and headed off.

"This will delay us you know." He said as they walked.

"I know, but we can't just leave them hanging, Ruby wouldn't."

"No, she wouldn't, I just want to make sure you were aware of it, I'm not against it, but I want you to know this will delay us at least two days."

"I know Thor, I know, but-"

"I know, I just want all the cards on the table." He said as they walked up the steps to the town hall. It was a simple building, only a single story, and nothing remarkable on the outside other than white walls.

Thor opened the door for Yang and let her walk in ahead of him, and then followed her in.

The inside was hardly more remarkable than the outside. It really did look like a building that was still being moved into.

"Welcome!" a voice came from the right, and they both turned to look as short, rather fat, a man with a bushy mustache and balding head came running forward. He gripped Thor's hand and shook it quickly, then moved to Yang. "Oliver radioed ahead, I'm grateful for you for agreeing to help us! I'm the provisional Mayor here, Terrence Green, and it's wonderful to meet you, please sit down." He said gesturing to a line of chairs behind them that lined the wall.

Compared to the oppressed nature of the watchman, and the quiet nature of the town, this man's energy was quite a surprise.

"What is the name of your town anyway?" Thor asked, "It's not on our map, so this must be a pretty new settlement."

"Oh! The name, don't have one yet I'm afraid, people can't agree on one yet, so we just call it "The Town." He laughed "Now, as I understand it, you aren't aware of our predicament, yes?"

Yang spoke this time "That's right, we just happened to find you on our way to Mistral."

"Well, here's the short version of it." Terrence said, his mood cooling slightly "There is a mine about half a days walk from here, and it's possibly the most valuable mine in all of Remanent!"

Both Thor and Yang were thinking he might be exaggerating that, but let him continue "But we can't get into it because there is a Grimm infestation in the area. Normally Hunters or Huntresses would be enough to deal with it, but ever since the CCT went down, we haven't been able to call for help, and we've tried to clear the area on our own, but with no success."

"So you want us to clear the area?" Yang asked, thinking this may not be too hard.

"Yes, that's exactly right!"

"Pardon me, but wouldn't it be easier to just…leave? I mean what could be so valuable that you stick around? I mean if it's a dust mine…"

"Oh, my dear boy this is no Dust mine, we mine this." With that, he pulled out a baseball sized hunk of what looked like iron ore, but it glittered "We call it 'Silver-Steel.'" He said proudly.

Thor looked at it, a bit confused "What's so special about it?" he asked.

"Well, we don't know exactly how, it has properties that drive Grimm off." He said proudly.

Thor and Yang both looked surprised at that "What do you mean "Drive them off?'" Yang said

"Well, in its refined form, something about causes significant discomfort to Grimm, and they won't come near it, and in the few times they've come in contact with it, it's actually burned them."

Thor and Yang went wide eye at this, a metal that hurt Grimm?

"Frankly, that's why our village is left alone by them, we've managed to put a piece of its refined form on the wall, they won't approach it anymore."

"Then why is the mine over run?" Yang asked, confused and astonished.

"It's only once we refine it, that it gains those properties, in the raw, it's not effective at all. But think of the uses? A Grimm repellant, a weapon lethal to them by touch, think of what we could achieve if we discovered it's secret!"

"The biggest game changer since Dust," Thor said as he handled the ore.

"Well, yes, we're still years away from developing a wide scale use for it, it's simply too rare, but we are trying to duplicate it affects, and if we do…"

"We get it, don't worry, we'll clear the area."

"Excellent!" Terrence shouted, clapping his hands together "You can head out tomorrow, till then, you can stay at the Tavern for free!"

* * *

As they got ready for bed, they both thought of what this discovery meant. If the mayor were to be believed it would be years before a wide spread use could be derived from it, but still, it repelled Grimm, that was a powerful thing.

Granted, it wouldn't keep the village safe from bandits, but that was one less thing to worry about.

"Thor," Yang spoke out to him as he climbed into his bed.

"Yes?"

"Did you ever hear of the 'Silver-eyed Warriors'?"

"In passing, why?"

"Well, their eyes were supposed to paralyze Grimm and scare them, now there's a metal call. 'Silver-Steel,' you think there's a connection?"

Truthfully, yes he did. Where he came from, Silver was the metal to harm unholy or demonic entities, here he saw that something similar may also be true. "I think there could be."

Yang looked like she wanted to continue the talk, but like she didn't know how, so she opted for a change of subject. "What type of Grimm do you think we'll encounter?"

Thor shrugged "Beowulf and Ursa most likely, but who knows really."

They'd inquired to this to the mayor, but no one left in town had been up to the area. Some had left, others had died, but none of what was left floating around the town as gossip had was really reliable.

"Guess you're right, better get some rest tonight, and work hard tomorrow."

With that, she climbed into her bed, and they both set in for the night.

* * *

The next morning they both rose and grabbed some quick supplies, and grabbed a quick breakfast before heading out. The Mayor had said it was a half a day walks to the mine, so they didn't want to wait until late in the day to head out, they wanted to get there with daylight left.

They had their directions and headed out, and it wasn't until they had been walking for some time that anyone brought up something they thought they might have wanted to discuss before leaving.

"Did we talk about payment?" Yang asked Thor as they trekked down the service road that leads to the mine.

Thor thought on this for a moment before answering "No, kind of an oversight now that we think about it, we didn't request payment."

"Well, that's okay, we're not doing this for the money."

"No we're not, but we are taking time and resources to deal with it, I hope we at least get a hot meal out of it."

"Yeah, a few supplies might be helpful too." She added.

Just as she finished speaking, a Haunting shriek rang in the distance, a very familiar one. As they came over the top of a hill, they found that a small valley beneath the hill was filled with fog.

They didn't need to say it, they both knew what this was.

Marauders.

* * *

"I can't believe none of the villagers mentioned a fog or mist," Thor grumbled as they started towards the fog.

"None of them were actually here though, you know how things can change with each telling."

"Doesn't make me feel any better about it, I hate this things," Thor said as he walked into the mist, creating an opening with his semblance. "Remember last time, wait for them to make the attack."

She didn't need him to tell her that, as the shrieking came flying towards her, and as one of the little monster flew at her, and she blasted it out of the air.

Two more went after Thor, and he cut them cleanly in half with his axe. Just like last time, they came in slowly at first, but with more frequency and ferocity as time went on.

But this time was different, they just seem to keep coming in more and more numbers. Yang wasn't worried until one winger her leg, and two nearly took Thor's head off.

"I think we need to back out for a minute, get out Breath!" She shouted over the wild shrieking, blasting two more.

Thor nodded as he just managed to slip past one, and they started to retreat back to where they knew the mist had ended. They didn't bolt and run, knowing if they left themselves open they risked being overwhelmed. But fighting in a slow retreat.

But something was wrong, and they both knew it. They were now moving up hill, but the mist had been at the bottom of the hill when they arrived, yet here they were still in it.

"These little bastards moved it," Thor grunted as he impaled one with the spike of his axe.

"Well, what do we do now? Just keep fighting?" She asked, with a slight twinge of panic in her voice.

"I have something that might work, but you need to listen carefully." He said as they ducked and attacked the incoming Grimm.

"When I say 'down,' you need to hit the ground, alright?"

"Okay, what are you going to do?"

"You'll see…'DOWN'!" He shouted, and without a second thought she dropped on to her back.

What she saw next was Thor raising his axe in the air and shouting. Next thing she knew, a bolt of Lightning came crashing down and struck the axe, making Thor look like a human lightning rod.

Lighting branched and arced out, striking several of the Mauraders in the circle. But as it reached into the mist, she heard the shrieking multiply several folds.

As the electric current disappeared, Thor dropped to his knees. Yang jumped to her feet and stood guard, waiting for more to attack. But none came, and fog started to dissipate.

"Good job, their big guy! Why the hell didn't you do that from the start?" She said as she turned to look at him, and she felt her blood run cold.

He looked incredibly pale and sweating bullets. "Are you okay?!" she said kneeling down next to him.

"Mostly, but that little move wiped me, I didn't know it would work or not, and it looked like it did, but I'm not going anywhere for a bit."

"Why not? They're gone, we can head back."

"My arm and leg got shorted out from that little move, I need to wait for them to reboot."

"What? How can that even happen? Your semblance shouldn't hurt your prosthetics, even electrical ones,"

"It was too much power, I don't think they were ever designed to handle that kind of current. They shut down."

"You mean they're fried?"

"No, I just think they shut down to protect their circuits, look here." He pointed with his real hand to a flashing orange light on his prosthetic "That means it's rebooting itself, should take an hour, that's why I wasn't really ready to use it before."

"Okay, we can wait a bit, but you know that was reckless right? If that hadn't of worked, you'd be just about helpless right?"

He didn't respond verbally but nodded. "I won't do it again, I promise."

"Well, I got some canned beans, I thought we'd be spending the night out here, but looks like we'll be back tonight. So-" she said as she dug through her pack, and pulled two cans out. "Here, you'll need the energy." She said as she opened her can and his. They didn't bother to heat them up on fire, knowing that by the time they got one going, they'd be ready to go.

As they ate they didn't talk, and as time went on Thor felt the sensations start to come back to his artificial limbs.

He stood, and although it hadn't been quite an hour, the limbs were partially functional and began to walk. He insisted on heading out now, and Yang didn't feel like denying him that, she didn't want to be out here longer than they had to. The Mauraders made her uneasy, how they attacked with such intent and planned their attacks and developed tricks to confuse their prey.

They started off at a slow pace, but as they moved, he got better and better, and before long he'd regained his normal movement.

" I think." He began "We should ask for some of that metal they have, as payment."

"Yeah? Why's that?"

"Might come in use, I might be able to add it to my axe, your gauntlets too, make for better Grimm fighting weapons. Might even keep them away, save us some trouble in the future."

"Yeah, I get that, okay we'll ask them once we're back."

* * *

The return to the village was met with a small amount of fan fair, but nothing extravagant. The people were grateful, but we're already getting ready to go back to the mine and start pulling the precious metal out of the ground.

"Thank you mayor, but we were wondering if it was at all possible." Yang began "If we could have some of that metal, you know, refined? We think it might come in handy on our journey."

The Mayor only looked confused for a moment, but smiled and agreed to the request. He told them he wasn't thrilled to be parting with it because they were planning on using what they had to build vehicles and gear to keep Grimm away from the workers.

But, he confessed they didn't have enough for that anyway, and they had helped them greatly.

They were each given ten pounds of the refined metal and were given all the supplies they could carry.

They were also given another night in the Tavern before they would leave the next day.

* * *

That evening, Thor waited on his bed while Yang took a shower. He wanted to have one as well, given how they hadn't had a proper chance to bath for some time. They hadn't the night before because they knew they were going into the field again the next morning. But now, they wanted a chance to freshen up, tonight and tomorrow morning as well.

He heard the water turn off and a moment later, Yang came out, wearing nothing but a towel, and he'd probably of found it much more alluring if he hadn't seen her much more exposed.

Instead, he got up and went in to take his turn in the shower.

Stripping down, he climbed in and turned the water on. He wasn't a great lover of luxury, but he appreciated being clean, and he knew Yang liked it when he kept himself clean as well. She wasn't really very girly, but hygiene was something she valued.

He shampooed his hair and washed his body, but didn't take nearly as long as Yang. He supposed a large part of that was he didn't have nearly as much hair like her, which no doubt took a long time to clean.

But after about twenty minutes, a long time for him at any rate, he turned off the water and stepped out. He looked in the fogged mirror and wiped it clear with his hand. Looking at his beard, he thought it could be cleaned up.

Grabbing a trimmer, he edged it up and knocked it down a bit. Examining his work, he decided it was good enough, and put the trimmer down.

Drying his hair and body, he wrapped a towel around his waist and stepped out into the room.

Looking into the room, he noticed Yang was lying in his bed.

"You know that's my bed right?"

"Really? Well, I guess I'm comfortable here. You can come in if you want."

He smiled at the invitation but didn't think he'd accept it. "No, I think I'll just take your bed." He said as he pulled the blankets back on her bed.

Yang's face fell at this, and he looked at her, and he thought she looked a little hurt.

"Is there something wrong with me?" She asked him.

He was taken aback this statement "Why would you think that?" He said sitting up in the bed.

"We've been 'official' for weeks now, and I've, let's be honest, been pretty forward with you. You've taken care of me a few times even, but you don't even want to go further." She paused at this " I don't get it, I mean, we could die any day now, and you don't want to go further than some making out and hand and mouth stuff."

Thor had realized he'd failed to see another facet to mortality, even if he was living it, he was still missing a great deal of context. Yang was young, but also in a scenario where her death could happen quietly suddenly, and her own near fatal experience had probably resulted in some more carnal desires coming forward.

He'd thought that when it had occurred, he'd dealt with it fine, but clearly, he hadn't. She wasn't just looking for physical release, but a deeper emotional connection to cling to. He'd been rebuffing that.

"Yang, it's nothing to do with you…" he began and trailed off because while that part he knew was true, he didn't know why he'd been resisting it.

There was no logical reason to not, they were in a relationship, they genuinely liked each other, and he found her attractive. So what was stopping him?

But he knew what it was, and he supposed he'd know for a while.

"I'm afraid." Was all he said.

Yang looked shocked at this, "Thor, I'm scared of it too, but I've never done it either, we're on the same page here…" she trailed off as he waved his hand.

"Not of the act." He said because although she didn't know it, he'd done it many, many time before, even if it wasn't in this body. "The idea of what comes from it. The idea of being intimate with someone, we have to be realistic here, leads to children, and I can't help but think…I'd be a horrible father, like mine, that I'd do something to hurt any child I might have."

"We'll use protection, I'm not planning on getting pregnant right now." She said almost indignantly.

"That isn't my concern, it's just…the thought, it scares me." He'd hadn't felt this way until very recently, with this current situation or test from his father, but he felt abandoned. He didn't know if that was the case or not, but the feeling was still there. "I don't think I'd get you pregnant, but damn it, I can't help but think of how bad a father I'd be."

Yang's expression softened considerably, and she stood up from the bed she was laying in, and sat next to him, and started rubbing his back. "Thor, that's…I mean I get it, I've got some parent issues too, as you know, but you couldn't possibly be a bad dad."

He had to turn much wider than he'd have to normally to look at her, because of his missing eye. "How can you know that?"

"Come on, they way you're around Ruby? Your general compassion? Your desire to protect, you'd be a great father some day." He smiled at this before she continued "But neither of us is going to be parents for a while yet, we're still young." She leaned in a kissed him quickly on the lips. "We're supposed to fool around a bit, so come on, let's have some fun, we don't know what tomorrow brings, so let's seize the day."

She kissed him again, more passionately this time. And he returned it, wrapping his arms around her, and she around him.

Next thing he knew he was on his back on the bed and Yang was on top of him.

"So." She said in a gasp as she broke the kiss "You up for it?"

He thought for a moment before thinking 'To hell with it,' and initiated another kiss with her before breaking it and saying "Alright."

* * *

The next morning Yang woke first, in Thor's arms as the sun peeked through the window. The previous night came back to her mind, and she couldn't help but smile at it.

It had been much better than she'd expected, given what she'd heard the first time couldn't be messy. But it had been a great night for her, and even though she had no point of comparison, he thought it had been wonderful.

She wanted to get a shower before they left, but she wanted Thor to be awake before she got in. He mentioned his dreams of being alone in an empty world. She didn't want to leave him alone when he woke up, she wanted to be there for him when that happened to ease his waking.

But as he started to stir, she sat up on the edge of the bed and waited for him to wake up.

It was a couple of minutes before he did, but he had a smile when he did. "Morning." Was all he said.

"Morning big guy, I'm gonna jump in the shower alright?"

"Sure, I'll take one after you, then we'll head out."

She nodded and headed into the shower. As she turned the water on and climbed in, she was glad she'd waited until they'd both had a proper bath before trying to really initiate their first time. As they had been traveling, they both would get a pretty strong smell of Body Oder, but the other thing was she hadn't been able to actually shave until last night. She remembered when she'd helped him shave back at her house that she'd done it more than him, which was true.

She didn't' think he'd care really if she hadn't shaved in a few days, but for her own self-image, she was glad she'd waited.

For their first time anyway, she felt that was sort of important, but if they got the urge on the road, well, she thought she'd live if she hadn't been as 'trimmed' as she'd like.

But she figured she take the chance now while she had it, and touched up everything she'd already done. And she cleaned herself as best she could, knowing that once they were on the road, it'd be at least a week before they hit the next town.

* * *

Thor got in and got cleaned much quicker than she did, and before much longer, they were packed and ready to go. Their "Silver-Steel" packed away with the supplies they have been given.

They got a quick breakfast from the tavern, and it wasn't two hours after sun up that they were on the road again. The few villagers who were up bid then farewell, and offered their thanks again, but they didn't stay longer than was needed to be polite to thank them before they were on their way.

They only were walking for a few minutes before Yang spoke: "What do you think Ruby is up too?"

"You've known her longer than me." Thor responded, "You'd have a better idea."

"Yeah, in some ways, but I think you know her in a way that's different from the way I do. Not better, I don't anyone other than my dad knows her better than I do, just…different."

"Well." He said pausing to take time to think "If she'd still traveling, she'd probably badgering the other's with a "How much longer" question, I never got the impression she really understood distance that well, and how long something like this would take." He said.

"Yeah, I can see that." Yang said smiling "But what if they're there?" Her tone becoming quieter and more somber.

"She's either looking at a foreign weapons shop or doing detective work." He said promptly. "She's not going to get sidetracked too much from her goal."

"No, no she's not," Yang muttered is a quiet, almost sad tone, her gaze cast towards the ground, apparently being drawn into deep thought.

"What about you, what do you think she's up to?" Thor asked, turning to look at her while he continued at his pace.

"Well, I think pretty much the same thing you do, she'd gonna be focused on her goal, not much is gonna distract her, expect maybe cookies." She said smiling.

They shared a small laugh at that, followed by silence.

"I miss her," Yang said suddenly, but not to Thor's surprise, he knew that, and he needs to voice it so often only cemented that fact in his mind.

"I know you do, I do too, but I know it's nothing compared to how much you do." He looked at her and saw the worry crossing her face again. "Don't worry, she strong, and she'd got friends to look after her. We'll find her before long, then you can go back to being the 'Team mom.'" He said smiling.

She smiled back and gave him a light shove before responding. "Well, if I'm the team mom, then I guess that makes you the team dad then."

He smiled back and gave her should a light nudge. They both started to laugh and continued on their way as the sun began to rise.

* * *

 **A/N: Okay, please leave a review and tell me what you think. They also help motivate me, positive or negative, to write quicker. I feel like I get some things to work on with each one and that makes me want to try and do them!**


	9. Arriving

**A/N: Okay, here's the next chapter. This one was delayed a bit because of a family emergency. Nothing super serious, but I wasn't writing for a few days this week so that's why it's a late.**

 **Also, this one is going to be a bit rougher, as I couldn't concentrate, in part due to the same family incident, enough to properly edit it like I normally would, which brings me to my normal request.**

 **I'm Looking for a Beta Reader, If anyone reading this would like to volunteer or knows someone who is interested, please PM me.**

 **Also, thank you so much to MarcusMebadd and Jawaswag Jenkins, I thank you for taking the time to review my work and tell me what I need to work on. I'm trying to improve in what was mentioned, and hopefully I will be getting better as I go on.**

 **Anyway onto the story.**

* * *

Chapter 8

* * *

The City of Mistral appeared on the horizon as the came over the top of another hill, a dark silhouette in front of the setting sun, with pin pricks of lights appearing here and there.

"Oh, thank God!" Yang gasped out, pulling her pack off and dropping it, rolling her shoulders.

"Don't get too excited yet," Thor said while mimicking Yang's movements. "Just because we can see it doesn't mean it's an hour walk away."

"I know!" Yang said, a little defensively. " But at least we can see it now!" she said as she started pulling out her camp gear. "I know it'll be an another day, maybe two, but at least the end is in sight."

Thor shrugged and started to get his own pack ready for the night. Neither had much to do in this regard, bed rolls and sleeping bags and setting up the fire.

Thor looked to the horizon and tried to gauge how much light they had left. He estimated he had an hour before it was too dark to see really well, and he figured this may be a chance to try and catch something to eat. If he didn't, they still had enough canned food for four more days, but he really didn't revel in the idea of eating it again.

If he couldn't find anything in the hour, he'd come back, He didn't think it was likely, but he didn't see the harm in it either.

"Yang, I'm going to head out, see if I can't find anything better to eat."

She waved him off as she worked on getting the fire going. Picking up his axe, he headed into the woods and started looking for signs of animal movement.

* * *

It only took Thor five minutes to find a game trail, but that was the easy part.

It didn't take much longer than that to track what he was certain a rabbit trail and follow it. He readied a wooden throwing club he'd made for this exact situation. You didn't need a bow and arrow or a rifle to hunt small game like a rabbit. A wooden club with a heavy knob on the end would work if you knew how to use it properly.

But it wouldn't matter if he didn't find anything in the next ten, or fifteen minutes, by then it's too dark for him to see.

* * *

The fire was going strong as Yang placed a can of beans in it. This canned crap was getting old, and she was really hoping Thor would manage to get something else for dinner, but she was prepared for the reasonably likely scenario he wouldn't. Not that she doubted his abilities, but the light was fading fast, and his eye sight in the dark wasn't as good as her's.

She imagined that the injuries he had gotten screwed something up something in his one working eye. He wasn't blind in low light, but he couldn't see as well as he probably should have.

He didn't tell her any of this, but she'd caught glimpses here and there of him getting caught on branches she could see clearly when the sun was setting, or tripping over a root she had managed to side step.

She didn't even know if Thor was actually aware of this himself. She'd bring it up to him once they were in the city and had found Ruby.

Just as she thought this, Thor came tromping out of the woods, two skinned rabbits on a stick. He was smirking, clearly very pleased with himself, raising his game over his head.

She returned his smile, but she always felt weird eating anything he caught. She'd grown up eating meat but was always sort of separated from the actual act of killing and the food served at the dinner table.

But she recognized the need in certain situations. They were supplementing the food they brought with fresh meat and fish, but if they were in the wild longer, it would be a useful, probably even essential skill. The route they had traveled had a fair number of town and villages to stop at and resupply, but her Uncle had told her about times when he'd been in the wilderness for weeks, even months at a time.

As Thor sat down next to the camp fire and started to prepare the skinned rabbits on a spit to cook them over the fire, Yang decided to ask him something "You think you could teach me how to hunt?"

Thor only glanced up his work and answered "Sure, but it's more than just being able to kill something, you need to know how to track and find them. Most people don't have the patience to learn that part of it, but if you want to learn, I can show you some different tracking skills on the road to the city." As he finished speaking, he placed the skewered rabbits over the fire and turned to look at her "That's actually the hardest part, once you find the animal, it comes down to if you can kill it or not, and some people just can't."

"I can do it, Thor, I can wipe out a whole herd of Grimm, I think I can kill an animal." She said this with confidence but wasn't sure if it was true. Grimm were monsters, and killing an animal that had never done anything to her, well that might be harder. But it was an excellent survival skill, so she figured she'd just have to bit the bullet on the issue and take it head on, as she was want to do.

The smell of cooking rabbit meat was pulling her out of her thoughts, it smelled so much better than the canned food they mostly been eating, and she was looking forward to some fresh food.

She wished they had some vegetables though, fresh ones, not the canned crap they'd been eating. But fresh vegetables were hard to find in the wild, although Thor assured her they could be, but they weren't likely to be what she thought of as a vegetable, the ones that grew in the wild didn't look like what you saw at the store.

Thor turns the spit to cook the meat more evenly and turned to her before looking down at the can in the fire. "Doubt I'd be able to catch anything?" His tone was accusing or aggressive. Indeed he even smirked at her.

"Hey, it was getting dark, and wanted to make sure that if he did end up with having to eat the canned food again, it would at least be hot." She reached for the can with his prosthetic arm and pulled it out, still intent on eating. She wasn't going to let it go to waste after all.

Thor just laughed as Yang set it down and waited for it to cool.

* * *

Their last dinner in the wild, or at least second to last a far as Yang could figure, was one of the better ones for their time on the road. Of course, excepting all times they'd stayed in an inn or tavern, but as far as meals prepared on a camp fire, this one was better.

She suspected it was more from what they ate, rather than how it was prepared. The rabbit meat tasted good to her, even unseasoned. Thor told her it was much leaner than pretty much anything she would have had before. She could certainly taste that, but she knew most people liked fattier cuts of meat, she, however, liked it lean.

Thor had placed the leg bones from his rabbit on a flat stone and put the stone almost right in the fire. She watched in some confusion as he watched them, and at one point she thought he might be trying to do some sort of ritual with them. She had read about casting bones into a fire to read for signs of the future.

These thoughts were shattered when he pulled the bones out and started eating them.

"Ewww! What are you doing!"

"Hmmm?" He looked over at her, chewed some more, then swollen before answering "Good source of calcium and mineral." He said, eating it like a pretzel "If you eat nothing but the meat off a rabbit, you can get sick, this helps work against that."

"Oh really?" she said, partially laughing, partially asking. "I've never heard of that."

Thor shrugged and continued eating the brittle bones " It's not super common knowledge, but it's out there." He looked at the last of the bones, picked it up and held it to her "Want to try one?"

Yang was a bit surprised by the question but tried to look a little bit interested, so as not to be rude. "No, I don't think so, maybe some other time."

He shrugged and crunched away on it.

Yang flinched at the noise and could help but think that, even if he was right, she didn't think she'd be eating bones anytime soon.

* * *

They woke up early the next morning, doused and buried their camp fire, and packed up. They want to get into the city today, but Thor also wanted to take any chances he could to give Yang some tips on tracking and hunting.

A single day was nowhere near enough to learn it all, and it would take tons of practical experience to use it properly. But any journey needed to start somewhere, and just because it was hard didn't mean you shouldn't try.

They set out, with every intention of reaching the city before night fall. As such they walked at a much brisker pace than normal, and the patter of their foot steps made a much quicker rhythm on the ground.

But Thor still found time to find an example to show Yang tracking signs. Broken branches were a big one, and to look for fur on the branches. Another was to search for signs of feeding, and how an individual makes showed what the animal.

Another was scat, a sure sign an animal was in the area. Tracks were obvious, but what Thor pointed out if they were old, how dry they were.

It was a good crash course, at least Thor thought so, and may give Yang an edge, but it was a poor substitute or real survival training. She'd had a fair share, he knew, all combat school had it but wasn't the same as having to deal with in in real life. Not unless the school decided to drop all the students in the forest for two weeks.

He resolved to show Yang, and Ruby when they meet up again, some of the finer details of wilderness survival. Not just for missions, but if the time came when they needed to fall off the grid, this would be a useful skill set to have. Not just hunting, just shelter building, fire starting, navigation and more.

But for right now, a few basic tracking tips would work. If Thor wanted to actually teach her some tracking skills, it would derail them for their course, which was to reach Mistral.

The City still sat as a shadow on the horizon, but it was much closer now, and if they pushed themselves they could reach in with in the day.

However, things were not to go as planned.

As the walked down the road to the city, they came to a bridge. Or what used to be a bridge, as it was in total ruin. The gorge was at least a hundred and fifty feet across, and a fog had set in the bottom, making the depths hard to decern. The mist didn't rise to the top of the gorge but stopped about from thirty feet from the ledge.

Had they been on a more used road, this wouldn't have been a problem, but they were traveling on a much smaller dirt road, and as such, this destroyed bridge had not been attended to.

Thor sighed a looked at it "We'll have to go around or down through, that means we won't reach the city until tomorrow."

Yang, chewing the inside of her cheek, nodded in agreement. She didn't want to have to wait, but there was no helping it in this case.

"Now, what we need to do is decided which way to go, or if we think we can climb down and out," Thor said, picking up a stone and tossing it down. It was maybe five or six seconds before they heard it hit.

Yang wasn't exactly sure at what the time to fall meant regarding actual heights, but she knew that trying to climb down that, in those foggy conditions, no doubt with the rocks slippery, was not going to be easy.

What's more, she didn't want to go into the mist. Their last two encounters in those conditions were not ideal, the Mist Maurauders were nasty Grimm. Not overly tough, but shockingly intelligent and crafty for their size. That was usually seen any sort of planning or thinking until a Grimm was older and bigger. Granted, she didn't know how big the damn things could get or how big they started out, but they were among the smallest Grimm she'd ever seen or heard of.

"We could climb down." Thor said as he looked to his left and right "Might be faster than going around, but…I don't know."

"Thor, you don't think it's Mist Mauraders do you?" Yang asked, trying to hide her anxiousness in her voice.

"No, I don't think so, listen." He said holding his hand up to cup his ear.

Yang listened but didn't hear anything. "What am I suppose to be hearing?"

"Nothing, that's exactly it, nothing." He said, examining the ledge. "You remember how those thing made the shrieking noise right? We'd hear them if they were down there, no this fog is probably natural."

She trusted Thor's judgment, but it still didn't stop the atavistic dread that ran down her spine as she looked into the depth of the cavern.

"Okay, well, how do we go down?" she kicked a stone down into the mist.

"We can use what's left of the bridge." He pointed to the struts and beams from the ruined structure. "We can follow them down and use the concrete bases as foot and hand hold. That'll be safer and more sturdy than using the rock face."

Yang looked down the edge and couldn't help but worry a bit, but he was right, it was going to be safer using the remaining foundation to get down, and it was likely much faster than going around.

"Well, let's just get going, the longer we wait, the less day light we'll have." She said as she prepared to descend.

* * *

The climb to the bottom hadn't taken as much time as Yang had originally thought it would. The remaining frame work of the bridge had helped, no doubt, but that didn't mean it had been easy.

Visibility had been low, and even with Thor blowing the mist away with his semblance, that didn't help them see how far they had to go to the bottom, given how small of range he had with it. Shapes that were simple outcroppings or shards of metal had an incredibly sinister appearance in the fog before it blew away.

But they had reached the bottom, with nothing worse than a minor scratch Thor had gotten from pieces of the bridge.

"Okay, let's get to the other side," Yang announced as she started to head out.

"Hold up," Thor said as he pulled out his scroll and looked at it. "Let's make camp for the night."

"What? We're half way there, come on, let's get out of here while we can!"

"It's too late in the day Yang." He said as he put his scroll away "It's going to be harder going up than coming down, and if we start now, we'll be climbing in the dark half way up, and that's not safe."

"What? It can't be that late." She muttered as she pulled her scroll out and realized he was right, given the time it had taken them to get down, and the time of day, they'd be climbing in the dark at some point, and she hadn't liked climbing in what little light they had. "Okay, fine, but we're going to head out first thing in the morning." She said as he started pulling her camp gear out. "You want to start collecting fire wood?" she asked him as she started getting ready.

"Won't do us any good, every thing down here is to damp to start a fire," Thor said as he touched the ground and picking up a stick and snapping it in half. It didn't make a crisp sound like a dry stick would, but more like the over ripe celery stock snapping.

"What, are we just gonna sit in the dark all night?" Yang said while trying to hide the slight panic in her voice. She wasn't afraid of the dark, but she didn't like the idea of being completely blind down in the gorge.

"No, I've something just in case of emergency." He said as he pulled out a gas tank and attached as a lantern to the top. After fiddling with it for a minute, it lite up. Setting it down, he looked at her "Gas Lantern." He said, " Won't last more than a night, but I don't think we'll need it for more than one night."

Yang raised and eyebrow at him "How long have you had that thing?"

"Since the start, but I didn't want to use it unless a fire was impossible, I only have the one tank."

"Okay." She said putting a hand out towards it "Does it give off any heat?"

"Not much I'm afraid." He said as he set up his own sleeping area. "But we should be fine for one night."

Yang glowered at this, she didn't mind the cold all that much but combined with how damp it was down here, she knew she wasn't in for a pleasant night.

They took out the last of their canned food and popped the lids off. Eating it cold wasn't what either of them wanted to do, but with no fire, they could endure it for one more night.

Yang finished her "dinner" and tried to settle in for the night, but it was too cool and damp for her to get comfortable.

She rolled in her sleeping bag trying to get comfortable. But it eluded her, and eventually, she sat up and ruffled her hair in frustration. She looked over at Thor, he was sleeping like a baby, and she found herself jealous. He could sleep pretty much anywhere, and she wished she could as well. Of course, when he had his nightmares, he didn't sleep well at all.

But he looked peaceful tonight, and she was cold.

Climbing out of her sleeping bag, she crept over to Thor. Pulling his bag open, she climbed in and snuggled next to him. His body heat was a welcome sensation and whole she could feel the cold air around her head, their combined body heat was keeping her more than warm enough.

The steady thudding of his heart was soothing as well, and before she knew it, sleep had over taken her.

* * *

Thor knew he was dreaming this time, but this wasn't a typical dream, nor was it like the visions.

This felt calmer, more grounded, it felt real. But Thor knew he was dreaming because he clearly remembered where he had set down to sleep.

But he was walking down a stone path, surrounded by darkness, and while he knew this was a dream, he couldn't control any of it.

But here, he was whole, both eye's, arms and legs. No burns or scars, just him as he was before.

He continued to walk, feeling that what he needed was straight ahead. He didn't dare step off the path, because he knew, although he didn't know how, that if he did, it would mean the end of him.

As he continued, he saw a light in the distance. He couldn't make out what it was from where he was. He had no point of reference, it was surrounded by darkness, it would have been a candle just a few yards in front of him, or a star in the sky.

He moved towards it, but the path didn't move straight towards it. It bent and wound its way towards the light. Sometimes turning away from it completely, but he was sure that he needed to reach the light. It held answers for him, he was sure of it.

But the dream world faded as he felt something pushing on his shoulder. He tried to shake it off and move along the road but the shaking didn't stop, and he started to head a voice saying "Wake up!"

* * *

"Thor! Wake up!" Yang hissed in his ear, not yelling, but clearly in an excited mood.

"What?" he grumbled, as he woke up, pushing his sleeping bag from on top of him, reaching for his axe.

"Something is here, I heard it." She whispered to him, trying to keep her tone down.

Thor rose to his feet beside her, then he heard it.

It a low wail, it sounded like the wind almost, but it seemed to come from the ground. As it tapered off, it rose in pitch and became a lonesome shriek. It almost sounded like the Marauders but was much deeper in pitch.

"Do you know what it is?" He asked Yang.

"No, it's not like anything I've ever heard before." She whispered back "This is something new."

* * *

Yang could help but wonder if there was some greater intelligence at work here. The Mist Mauraders were bad enough, a new undocumented species of Grimm. But now there was something else lurking in the darkness, and it sounded much bigger.

Two new species of Grimm? This was not right, she wasn't academically inclined, but she knew the newest species of Grimm to have been discovered was near a hundred years ago.

They had encountered two new species in the time frame to travel between two kingdoms. Something was wrong.

She had thought the sound may have been something else, but this was not the call of a normal animal. She was sure of it. This was a Grimm, it reminded her of the Mauraders, and that scared her. The unknown scared her, it was something she could not see or understand. If she couldn't see it, she couldn't fight it.

The gas lantern was flickering, and for a moment, Yang thought it was running out of fuel. But the rattling sound from the metal on it told her that it was shaking.

Before she pieces together what that meant, the light suddenly vanished. It didn't dim or fade first, it was as abrupt as someone turning a light switch off.

She felt a hand on her shoulder, and if she weren't as conditioned for stressful situations as she was, she'd probably of jumped. But it was just Thor.

"Look." He whispered and pointed into the fog.

She looked, but thought it was pointless the low light with the fog's thickness made it all but pointless. But she thought she heard something in the direction he was pointing. Another loud wail and suddenly a bright light seemed to shot out of the ground straight into the air.

Readying for an attack, she followed the light. Soon it became apparent it wasn't alive, ar it reached the zenith of its shallow arc, and dropped to the ground some thirty feet away. It burst into a ball of fire then faded into the dark.

"Was that the lantern?" She whisper, although she didn't know why, what ever had taken the lantern had already been right next to them. But she hadn't seen it, and that was bad. Either it was really fast or possibly capable of invisibility.

"Yes, and it came out of the ground." He said. "We need to run, to the other side and get to the walls and climb out."

She didn't know exactly why he thought this was a good, why run? But then she remembered what she'd seen and what he said. "You think it's under the ground?"

Thor nodded "We can't fight something we can't see or even actually touch. A retreat is better for now."

"Okay, we'll run for it on three." She said, looking at Thor dark outline, he nodded." One." Her legs tensed "Two," her pulse heightened, and she could swear she felt her heart beating in her ears. "Three!"

They took off towards the opposite wall, running as fast as they could. It was dark, and she was afraid they crash into something.

Thor had apparently thought the same thing and pulled a flare out, lite it and threw it as hard as he could into the opposite wall. Seeing where it bounced off the wall.

In the dim light given off by the flare, she could see the concrete base of the bridge and jumped onto it and started climbing up the stone face of the gorge wall.

That was when she heard Thor cry out in pain. Turning around, and in the dim light given off by the flare, she could see Thor was on his stomach, gripping the edge of the concrete base.

Something was pulling on his leg, his real one. She couldn't see it well, but it was black and long, coming out of the ground.

Jumping down, she blasted it, severing nearly completely in half.

With whatever it was dead, Thor started to scramble with her up the concrete and stone until they were good twenty feet above the ground.

Both panting, not from physical exhaustion but the adrenaline rush from the run and near miss.

Thor placed a hand on Yang's shoulder "Thanks for the save."

She shook her head to show it wasn't needed "So." She began "What's stopping what ever that is from just coming out of the walls to get us."

"I don't think they can tunnel through stone." He said, looking and feeling around to make sure they were on stone.

"What makes you think that?"

"Well, it went after me, and only got me. If they could go through stone, you climbing would have been a much easier target, they'd just have to knock you off."

"Okay, that makes sense, but why go for it in the first place?"

Thor shrugged "If they could tunnel through stone, we were screwed either way, this way we at least won't have to try and cross the bottom of the gorge with them after us."

Well, Yang wished he'd made the decision to run on more solid thoughts, but it didn't seem like they were being pursued now. The wailing was echoing up from the floor of the gorge. "Should we try to climb out now?"

Thor looked up the wall of the gorge. "No, it's too dark, We should wait until the sun is up."

Yang didn't want to have to be in the place longer than he had to, but the thought of trying to climb out in the dark, and maybe slip or fall, then ending up right at the bottom of those things again.

Instead, she hunkered down, pulled her knees to her chest to keep warm. "I knew coming down here was a bad idea." She muttered. They'd lost their packs and sleeping bags, and aside from a handful of items, they had nothing, and she wasn't about to go back for it.

Thor plopped down next to her and wrapped his arm around her, sharing his body heat. "I'm sorry." That was all he said, he didn't elaborate or say what he was sorry for, although she had a vague idea.

"It's not your fault, I mean, how could you of known." She didn't feel much like talking right now, but icing him out was not going to do them any good. "So what do you want to name this one?"

"I'm not sure if I'm up for that after they grabbed me. Those things are strong, I wasn't sure how long I could hold on for."

"Well, they need a name." She said, trying more to keep the conversation flowing, she was certain she wasn't going to get back to sleep tonight, and sitting here in the dark in silence was not appealing either. "How about…Terra-risers?" She said emphasizing the first part to make the "Terra" part stand out.

"A pun? Really."

"How long have you known me?" She said smirking.

"Fair enough, but that name sounds too much like kids show villain."

"Yeah, I know, I just want to keep the conversation going, I don't want to sit here all night in silence."

"Look, let's just forget about those things for tonight. We're going to be in Mistral tomorrow, we'll finally find Ruby, and then, we can start to sort this whole thing out, and find out what she's learned so far."

Yang thought on this, and the very idea of seeing her sister again made her feel warmer. She nestled closer to Thor, wanting to share more of his wrath. She was starting to see some valid points for Ruby wearing her cloak, in situations like this, it would be helpful.

But that damn thing was a hindrance in a fight, getting caught on things or someone grabbing it. But she'd be the last person to try and take it from her.

"How long until sunrise?" She asked, changing the subject.

Thor pulled out his scroll and looked at the time "An hour away, just about. I guess we were asleep longer than I thought."

"Good." She said standing up and doing stretches. "I want to be warm when the sun comes up and hit this thing as soon as possible."

* * *

The sun rise wasn't anything like what she had ever experienced before. It only seemed to get brighter, no real source of light was visible.

But they had decided to head out at sunrise regardless and started their ascent.

Thor had been right, this was harder than the climb down. Having to fight gravity along with finding good foot and hand holds.

She wanted to check on how long they had been climbing, but she couldn't reach her scroll. It felt like a few hours, but she knew that wasn't really a good measure of the time. It could have been way more or way less.

After what seemed like forever climbing, they eventually broke the mist.

Yang hadn't even realized how suffocating it had been to be in a fog. Not physically but mentally, she took a deep breath.

The top was near, and with that knowledge, she felt a surge of energy and push to get to the top.

* * *

"Oh god, I'm glad to be out there." She breathed heavily as she flopped on the ground, Thor coming up behind her.

"Yes." He said plopping down next to her. "We can rest for a few minutes, then we can head out." He said while rolling his shoulders, trying to work some stiffness out of them.

They sat there for a few minutes, getting their the wind back. But before long they stood up and set off at a brisk pace.

Neither of them had to say why they were moving faster than normal. They didn't have the gear to spend another night in the wild. It wasn't that they couldn't, in fact, Yang was sure Thor could do it for a long time if he had to. But it wouldn't be a pleasant experience, and they both wanted to be in the city before nightfall.

"So." Yang began, breathing a bit heavier than she normally would have "Think of a name for those things yet?"

Thor snorted a bit before responding "No, but we don't even really know what they look like, other than the one that grabbed me, and that one was still partially underground."

"Yeah…" she said trailing off a bit as she thought about what he said. They didn't really know what these things even looked like, so naming them felt off when he brought that up. Giving them a name should really only come after they knew more about them.

The City still loomed on the horizon to them, but they were close.

But the sun was getting low in the sky, and they had to turn the conversation to whether they were going to make camp, or try and push through the night and get to the city.

This was, of course, starting to frustrate Yang. Despite cutting through the gorge and moving double time, they still weren't at their destination.

Thor told her that just because they had picked up the pace didn't mean they were going to make their time. They may have moved faster, but they still need to go over terrain and roads that had fallen out of use, and as a result was not as easy to travel, and had broken their pace.

"No, not another night out here Thor." She said as he approached the question. "We've got no food, no sleeping gear, we're getting there, I don't care if we have to walk all night."

"Okay." He raised his hands defensively. "I was just asking."

Yang's temper had been a bit more easily agitated after the event in the gorge. Neither of them had eaten since then, and Thor was certain that had a bit to do with her irritation. But more over he thought she was eager not to experience any more delays than they had already had.

The small spat resolved, they doubled their pace, not quite running, but close.

* * *

Thor couldn't ever remember feeling a worn out as he did now, serious injuries aside, just from exerting himself for this long. He felt dizzy and his mind was clouded with exhaustion.

Yang didn't look much better, but they had made it into the city. It was well after sundown, and they needed a place to stay for the night. They didn't want to go through the effort of the search, but they couldn't sleep on the streets.

They eventually, through some inquiry, found a hotel. Not really nice, but affordable, and most importantly, it was here.

They walked into the single room with one bed. With out talking to each other, they kicked their boots off, stripped down to their underwear and climbed into the bed, and were asleep in moments.

* * *

The night both of them dreamed.

Thor had his dream of the darkness and the light he was trying to reach through the winding path. He couldn't tell if he was getting closer, but he was certain he was. But he had to sense of perspective or context, he didn't have a clue how far away his destination was.

Yang's dream was more of a memory. But one she knew couldn't be true. Her mother, her biological mother, was home. Doing things Summer had, taking care of her and Ruby. She knew it wasn't right, but it was such a beautiful lie that she wanted to indulge in for a little while longer.

After making cookies for them, Raven played with them. Yang couldn't help but feel a sadness under the joy, knowing deep down this was just a dream.

* * *

When she woke up, Yang didn't open her eye's hoping to slip into the dream, but she knew that wouldn't work. Still, she lay there, trying to remember as much of it as she could.

After a minute or so of just lying still, she felt someone next to her and remembered where she was.

She had insisted on getting into the city as quickly as possible, and by the time both her and Thor had gone to sleep, they were both close to zombies.

She still felt the aches from the overexertion, and she was regretting it now. But regardless, she was happy to finally be close to her sister. She should be here, at Haven, looking for answers. That was the first place they'd go.

Sitting up in the bed, she looked at Thor and saw he was still fast asleep. She was relieved to see he looked peaceful. She didn't like the idea of starting the day with waking him from one of his night terrors.

Getting up, she headed into the shower. He cloaths, the only set she had left after the events at the cavern, was dirty, and she didn't want to have to wear them again. But she didn't have much of a choice, so she decided to wash what she could in the sink and let them dry over the room's heater.

Picking up her cloaths, she grabbed Thor's as well, deciding she owned him a bit of an apology for pushing as hard as she did yesterday.

This wasn't going be a thorough washing, more like a rinse and scrub, she didn't have any detergent, but it was better than walking around in sweat and dirt soaked clothes.

As she headed to the sink, she realized she was missing something.

It took her a moment to realize she didn't have Thor's underwear, he was still wearing it.

She smirked at the idea of this, what she was planning on doing. It wasn't like he had something she hadn't seen before.

* * *

Thor's first thought when he woke up was how warm it was. Opening his eye, he took in the room he and Yang were staying for the first time in day light.

He also realized he was naked under the blanket, despite remembering he was wearing his underwear when he went to bed the previous night.

Sitting up, he looked around the room. He noticed his and Yang cloaths draped over the heater, which was blowing out hot air, which at least explained the temperature.

"Oh, you're up, good."

Thor turned to see Yang sitting in a chair, doing something on her scroll. She was wearing nothing but a bath towel.

"Just get out of the shower?" He said while realizing he was also naked under the blanket.

"I washed out cloaths in the sink before I took a shower, no detergent, but the sweat and dirt are out of them at least, they're drying on the heater." She gestured to the cloaths.

Well, that made sense to him, as far as an explanation for his and her's current situation.

"How much longer until they are dry?"

"Let me check." She stood as she spoke and walked over the drying clothes, and touched them "I'd give them another twenty minutes."

"Good." Thor said standing up, rolling his shoulders to work the stiffness out "I'll take a shower, after that, once out clothes are dry we can go find Ruby."

Yang waved him off as she seems intent on looking over the clothes, seeming to be very interested in them now.

Thor walked into the bathroom and climbed into the shower, and found the hot water relaxing to his still sore muscles.

* * *

As he got out of the shower, Thor wiped the fog from the mirror. He still couldn't quite believe he what he looked like now. He tried to hide it from Yang, but his sudden drastic alteration in what he looked like disturbing. He'd looked more of less the same for eons, and now he practically had a new face and new appearance overall. It was screwing with his personal identity in more ways than he would have expected, but he just didn't look like himself, and there was no way around that.

Turning away from the mirror, he wrapped a towel around his waist and headed out into the room.

Yang was getting dressed, their cloaths now dry. Thor walked past her and started getting his own clothes and started to pull them on.

"We're gonna have to get some more clothes," Yang said as she pulled on her boots. "At least enough for a three-day cycle, but I'd like to have at least a weeks worth."

Thor nodded as he pulled his pants on, but didn't bring up the fact they weren't exactly swimming in money right now. Between their combined funds, he thought the three day supply was more likely. They still had to get something to eat as well, they hadn't eaten in about 24 hours, and he was feeling the effects of not having eaten in that time period.

"Let's get some breakfast first." He said as he pulled his shirt over his head.

"Fine, but most places aren't going to be severing it anymore look," Yang said point to the clock. It was almost noon. "We slept in late, guess we were more tired than we thought."

"We also didn't get in until late last night." Thor sighed, he hated it when he was asleep this late, he felt like he wasted the day. There was no helping it now "Ready to check out?"

* * *

Thor had insisted on eating at a buffet, to get as much as they could for their money. Yang didn't fight him on it much, only asking why, and once he explained their current money situation, she agreed.

She didn't normally like Buffet's, she knew her tendency to stuff herself if given the chance and she knew that wasn't good for her, so she avoided it most the time. But they hadn't eaten since two nights before, and she was starving.

The place they had decided on was a mix buffet, and they didn't waste time in loading their plates up. Thor's appetite was better than it had been since before the fall of Beacon, and Yang felt like this was a good sign of him regaining some of his old self.

Yang herself ate with a speed and indecency that she'd of normally found embarrassing. But she was too hungry to care at this point, and before long the pair of them had demolished several plates of food.

"Oh, I think I ate too much." Yang moaned as she rested back in her seat, and to her amusement, Thor was still wolfing down food. He was quite a bit bigger than her sure, but he'd always had an near supernatural appetite. "Thor, you gonna be finished soon? I'd like to head to Haven as soon as possible."

Taking one last swallow, Thor spoke up "I'm good to go now if you want, I've eaten enough."

"Well, if you're full-"

"No, I said I've eaten enough." Thor said smirking "I don't get full very easily."

Yang tried to hide her smirk at the comment by pointing out a fact of irritation for her "How can you eat what ever you want and still have a body like a god? I've got to work to keep the fat off."

"Really? But you always look so good." Thor said as he started to dig back in.

"Oh, stop, you'll make me blush!" Yang explained with false modesty, but she really did like the compliment. "True though, I do look good. But I watch what I eat a lot, I don't know what it is, but I tend to get kind of…chubby, if I don't watch what I eat. I don't lose my muscle or anything, but the fat kind of accumulates easier than most. Nora makes me mad sometimes." She said with a frown forming on her face "She can eat what ever she wants and never gains a pound of fat."

"Nora has the metabolism of a hummingbird and the personality to match." He said looking her in the eye "I don't think it's fair to compare anyone to her, she's a complete outlier."

"Wow, you know just what to tell a girl to make her feel better huh?" Yang said, her tone sardonic, but she was telling him the truth. That had made her feel a little better about it.

Thor stood up, leaving his latest plate half full. "Let's head out now, I've gotten enough, let's go find your sister."

That was the magic word to Yang, as soon as her sister was brought up, her mood always shifted to finding her and making sure she was okay.

"Okay, let's head out." She said standing up herself, reading to head out.

They left the restaurant, and walked out onto the street.

* * *

"Which way to Haven?" Thor asked, while he looked up and down the street as if looking around for the school.

"I'm not sure, but it shouldn't be hard to find, we just have to ask around a bit." Yang responded.

She was right of course, the first person they asked sent off to the school.

As the school came into sight, it was weird as they both felt a sense of Deja Vu come over them.

It didn't look like Beacon, not really, but it had the same air about it, a home to future warriors.

Thor felt an old feeling of excitement, Yang felt nervous. She was about to, hopefully, see her little sister, who she had been incredibly dismissive and cold to before she had left on her own journey.

Apologizing was going to be the first thing she did once they reunited. Before she was even aware of it, they were at the front doors of the school.

"We should head to office, and see if they-" Yang began but was cut off.

"Yang?" an all to familiar voice called from behind them.

Yang felt her heart rate jump and her blood run cold. Turning, standing behind her was no other than her little sister.

Her face was in disbelief and Yang was sure if she a mirror, she'd have a similar expression on her face.

"Ruby?" she whispered.

They just stared at each other for what felt like hours, but couldn't of been for more than a few moments.

"Yang!" Ruby cried and tackled her sister with enough force send her to the ground.

* * *

"I was so worried about you." Yang whispered into her sisters ear as they embraced "I'm sorry I was so hung up on my own shit that I didn't listen to you, I should have gone with you-"

"Yang, it's okay, you're here now, that's all that matter!" Ruby said, standing up and pulling her sister to her feet along with her. "What have you bee up to! What happened on your way here? Did you run into trouble?! We did! We…." Ruby's voice trailed off as she for the first time noticed the man next to Yang.

The expression on Ruby's face broke her heart. It was one of near complete confusion and unrecognition. Yang looked to Thor to see what he was doing, but he was stone faced, not giving anything away.

Yang looked back to her sister, and saw she looked like she was puzzling something out, like she had just seen something vaguely familiar, but couldn't place it.

Then Ruby's eye's widened, and she spoke "Th…Thor?"

A smile broke across Thor's haggard and scarred face. "Yes?", he said with such a tone, a person could before forgiven for thinking Ruby was just trying to get his attention to ask for directions.

Yang looked back to her sister, who had tears forming in her eyes. Then, quicker than the eye could see, she was latched on Thor's waist wailing.

"OH MY GOD! I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD!" Ruby cried as she squeezed Thor's waist, and was near hysterics.

Thor laughed gently as he stroked her hair, with his real hand "I've told you, I'm not going to leave you alone."

Ruby broke the embrace and looked at him with tears now running down her face, looking him over, as if trying to see if he was really there.

"Thor what happened?" she finally whispered.

"That, Ruby." He began "Is a bit of a story."

"Well, I'd like to hear it." She said meekly, smiling a bit.

Thor and Yang were a bit taken aback by her forwardness, wondering if she didn't think that asking about his injuries might be a sore subject.

"I mean, your old weapon was so cool, I don't why'd you trade if for something else." She said smiling, as Thor and Yang both shared befuddled looks "Unless it's even better! Oh, is it better?!" She said starting to get excited.

That was when they both realized she wasn't commenting on his appearance, she was, in typical Ruby fashion, asking about his weapons.

Yang and Thor exchanged smirks and started to laugh, this time, it was Ruby's turn to looked confused

"What did I say?" Ruby asked, genuinely confused.

* * *

Thor had told Ruby his old weapons system had broken beyond repair and couldn't be salvaged. Which was perfectly true, but he didn't elaborate on it any further.

Following this, they went over what had happened as they had traveled. Ruby told them about the destroyed village, The Scorpion Faunus, Qrow's injury and the Grimm they had killed.

Yang and Thor's journey had been far less adventurous, other than the two new species of Grimm, they hadn't had much in terms of discovery.

"Wait, the 'Mist Mauraders', they made the fog right?" Ruby asked as they finished their own story of their journey.

"Yes, why?" Yang asked, a bit perplexed at this question.

"We ran into those thing too! Only once thought, and Jaune lost a couple fingers to one, but we called the 'Shriekers'." Ruby said, a bit excited clearly at having some sort of shared experience.

"Shriekers?" Was all Yang said at first, then she leaned over to Thor murmured out of the corner of her mouth "Their name is better than ours."

"Yeah I know, hush!" Thor muttered back. "Well, what ever you call them, I'd prefer them to what ever we ran into in the gorge on the way here, couldn't even see the thing, or things I suppose. They are under the ground." He sighed "I don't think what ever that was will be easy to take down, if it's under the ground, it'll be hard to hit."

"Oh…that's the same thing." Ruby said nonchalantly.

Thor and Yang exchanged confused looks "Same as…what?" Yang asked.

"The 'Shriekers', I don't know how exactly, but they change after a while, they get huge and go underground. It's not like they are bigger exactly, I mean they are, but that's not all that changes."

"Well." Yang started "What else changes?"

"How they hunt, when they're little, they just hunt anything that's warm, they'll attack anything that's hot."

Thor raised an eyebrow in confusion "They don't have eye's, so they have to hunt some other way, how do you know its heat?"

"Well, it was an accident really. When we encountered them, they attacked our camp fire, but after that, they only came after us. But the real give away was when I lost some fire dust when one clipped me, and a tree caught fire and they started attacking it. They'll attack anything that was warm."

Yang and Thor look thought embarrassed at this. They had thought the Grimm were trying to blind them by taking out their light source, but now, it seemed like they were just mindlessly attacking after all.

"You mean they're so smart cause they're so stupid?" Yang asked, with her face flushing a bit.

"Well, not they aren't stupid, they actually learn really quick, the same trick won't work twice on them." Ruby clarified.

Thor spoke up "You said they changed as they grew, how do the bigger one's hunt?"

"Sound, we think, or at least vibration. I mean they are under the ground, so they can't really smell or 'see heat' there can they."

That was something to think on. A Grimm that changed as it grew, more than being bigger and stronger, but it developed new abilities.

* * *

"So!" Ruby began, eyeballing her sister and Thor. "Have you two gotten together yet!"

Had Ruby tried to spring this question on them before they had started their relationship, it may of resulted in exasperated sighs for Yang, and good natured teasing from Thor.

As it was now, Yang just answered "Yup."

"Oh, okay well…" Ruby looked up "Wait, Really?"

"Yup, so tell us more about-" Yang began but was cut off by Ruby's scream as she hugged both Thor and Yang.

"I knew it would happen! Now you really are my brother."

"Okay, okay…" Yang said laughing and pushing her sister off "We aren't married, we're just dating. But yeah I guess you were right."

"Yeah…sorry." Ruby said stepping away, blushing a bit over her reaction. "Still, this makes you an honorary family member!" Ruby exclaimed to Thor.

"So, where is the rest of your group? Jaune, Ren and Nora?" Thor asked trying to move the conversation along to a different direction he was more comfortable with.

"They're in their room." Ruby said a bit sadly "They're kind of trying work through their own stuff now. I mean, I get they have to, but I've kind of felt a little left out. I'm glad you guys are here, I mean I love those guys, but I need some team bonding of my own."

"Well, that's important I guess, but now that we're caught up, I think we need to know anything you've found out, about this whole mess." Yang said while her tone switched into a much more serious mood.

* * *

Yang was so happy to see her little sister, that she wasn't really all the affected by the news she had shared with her.

It had come from their Uncle Qrow, who for all his flaws, wasn't a liar, or at least he'd never lied to them directly.

This talk of gods and artifacts was more than she was expecting, but her study of the book on Thor's heritage had in some way grounded these concepts in her mind . She didn't know how to explain it, but she felt that Thor was somehow responsible for making these concepts less fantastic.

Which was weird on its own, given he'd never claimed to be a god, but more just taking on the persona to…but that wasn't right either.

He'd never actually claimed that was what he was doing, he sort of just side stepped it a bit. Well, regardless, he had helped bring these concepts into her world view.

Her mind at this point turned back to the book, which Thor was looking for with some earnest. Then it went to her partner, who probably had it.

She wondered where Blake was now, and if she was looking for them, like she'd come looking for Ruby. She wasn't super hopeful, as much as that hurt her to admit. Blake had bugged out after the Fall of Beacon.

No word from her, not letter's, no nothing. She wondered if Thor would try and find her, to find the answers he was looking for in that book.

She dismissed such a thought nearly instantly. Thor was here for her and Ruby, he wasn't going to go anywhere.

In that fact she was certain, He'd stay with them for as long as was possible, he wouldn't abandon her like her Mother or Partner.

Thor would always be there for her and her sister.

* * *

Ruby honestly hadn't had much to tell them, but that didn't make what she told them unimportant. It wasn't much, but it was potentially world changing.

The two gods, in particular, had a strong hold on Thor's thoughts. He wondered if they could be his brother's, Balder and Loki. But he'd of know if such going on's in their life. That was of course assuming the time between his last memory and waking wasn't anything like a few centuries or millenniums.

But even if they weren't his brother's, contacting them may yield the answers he needed. But as he didn't know how to go about such an endeavor, that lead him back to the book.

He'd been hoping Blake and Weiss may of made their ways to this location as well, but no such luck this time around.

He needed to find Blake and that book, but he was completely unwilling to leave Yang and Ruby. Yet the draw of that book, and the possible answers was a strong pull on his mind.

He didn't remember many time when he'd felt so thoroughly pulled in two directions.

On one hand, the possible answers to why he was here, maybe hidden by his father. It could be the key to his true power and salvation of this world and his father knew how many others.

On the other hand, his emotional attachment to Yang and Ruby pushed in his mind just as strong, if not stronger. He couldn't imagine leaving them alone to face the threat he knew was out there, and he knew it was more than mindless Grimm. There was a larger conspiracy at hand here. He'd suspect it before, and now Ruby telling her of the attack on her group by that Agent of enemy, they didn't want her getting somewhere.

Add to that now, he didn't think the Grimm were so mindless, at least not as a group. They had both run into the same unknown Grimm type on their journey. That made him think there was some sort of force behind the Grimm, guiding them to a goal, or at least influencing them to a specific end.

That made his dilemma a bit harder. Should he stay to look after the people he cared about, or seek out the way to return himself to full power and save the whole world.

But he didn't even know if the book really held real answered, but something told him it did. To find it though, that would mean finding Blake, who had disappeared off the grid since the fall of Beacon.

If he stayed with Yang and Ruby, he'd be able to look after them at least. Despite his diminished power, even his own weakened mortal power after his defeat, the idea he could be there to help them if they needed it, eased his mind.

So that was the two prongs of the spit he was roasting in. Leaving, and taking a huge risk to find someone he had no clue where she was, to find a book that may hold answered, that may return his power. Against the fact he could stay with Ruby and Yang to help them as they needed.

Logically, staying was the more sure thing, much easier to weigh the pros and cons for. But the promise of the return of his power, his full power, that could solve every problem they had here, was a powerful lure.

He needed to sleep on the questions, and that night, he did.

And once again, he dreamed.

* * *

 **A/N: Okay, a bit of a cliffhanger here.**

 **Will Thor stay or Leave. Tell me what you think**

 **Please Review and tell me what you think!**


	10. Looking to Answers

**AN: Okay this one chapter was delayed far more than the others. The simple explanation is I just couldn't get to my computer and sit down and write, and when I could it was interrupted. Family matters came up and that is as much as I'm going to tell you guys on the matter. I don't want to burden anyone else with my problems that aren't related to this story.**

 **But I do want to make some things know on this piece of work. First is updates will more likely than not be coming slower than before. Just the nature of my situation.**

 **Second, I try to proof read this story on my own, but my head simply isn't in at much as it was. I'm still looking for a Beta if anyone can help in that regard.**

 **Third and possibly most importantly, I've been thinking of re-writing this piece of work from the beginning. I know exactly where this story is going and how it's going to end, but I'm not sure how it's been going so far as far as the readers are concerned. Nothing is set in stone, just something I'm thinking of, deleting it and starting over.**

 **Well, here's the next chapter. Read and Review.**

 **P.S. I have a reference to another piece of media in this story, I'm wondering if anyone can spot it. If you do, I'd be willing to accept OC submissions for an event in this I have coming up.**

* * *

Chapter 9

* * *

Jaune examined his left hand as he sat in his room, thinking of if he should try a get prosthetic fingers for his missing fourth and fifth finger, the area of the injury was still tender, even after all this time.

He knew that it would be for the best overall, but he was functioning pretty well as it was, and replacements were expensive and frankly not that easy to come by, at least of the quality he would like.

His mind wandered back to the encounter with the Shriekers, how they'd been caught so flat-footed.

It had been towards the end of the journey, but before Qrow had meet up with them. The fog had just seem to roll in out of nowhere. They had at first taken it to just be a bizarre weather pattern, but then the scream came.

Jaune didn't think he'd ever forget that sound, how it made his blood run cold. He was sure the other's were scared as well, but he hadn't asked them then, and didn't want to ask them now.

He had at first thought it was a person screaming in pain, but the sheer volume of length of the sound had killed that thought in his mind. Then there was how it changed as it died out, he couldn't describe it, but it was inhuman, that was for sure.

Then they were upon them, flying at them like dart in the low visibility. Ruby killed one first, nearly cutting it in half with her scythe.

But then one attacked their campfire and taken most of their light away. It was then Jaune came as close as he did to panicking.

The intent behind the attack on their only light source had seemed in his mind, the mark of a cunning creature.

More came, and in the fog and low light, they were barely able to fend them off, Ren had managed to cloak them, or tried to, but these Grimm were still able to hone in on them somehow.

It was then that one caught Ruby in the shoulder and dragged her to the ground.

Without thinking, he grabbed it by its head and yanked it off her and threw it away, but he felt a sharp pain in his fingers as he did.

A warm sensation was running down his hand and arm. Looking, he saw two of his fingers were missing, and blood was now running down his arm.

Ruby tried to get up to help, while trying to reload her gun, but was hit again, and her magazine went flying.

The dust inside was either agitated or not all that stable to being with, because when it landed on an old, lead tree, it exploded and whole thing caught fire.

That was when the attention of the Grimm switched. They started throwing themselves at the new fire, and they all took this opportunity to kill them as they were distracted.

Once they had finished the last of them off, Jaune had wrapped his hand, and they set about rebuilding the fire and campsite.

Had they not been so tired and worn out, and Jaune hurt, they would of continued on, but they had needed the rest.

Jaune wished they had left as soon as the fir was over, because that was when the big one came.

The Fog came back an hour later, but this time it was silent.

They had all been on guard, but none of the tell-tale screams came back.

But when the ground started to shake, they knew they had a problem.

Something huge burst out of the ground next to Jaune, and had Ruby in its jaws.

If it weren't for her semblance, he was was certain she'd be dead. But she managed to escape, and they all ran once the thing was back under the ground. They were tired, he was hurt and they didn't know to handle a burrowing enemy.

They managed to move into the mountains and the Grimm didn't pursue them.

They speculated as to why, Ren offering the idea it couldn't tunnel through stone. Nora offered the idea that it just couldn't see them, but Jaune thought Ren's was more likely.

Jaune had been the only one to really see both Grimm types up close, and to him they looked a lot alike. The bigger one really did just look like a larger version of the ones who attacked them earlier.

As they had made their way through the mountains, they came to a conclusion that the two species were one in the same. Given the most they generated and similar appearance.

But what they hadn't managed to figure out was why these apparently now grim had just suddenly appeared.

Or why there were two variations of them.

His mind came back to the present and he pushed the idea out of his mind. The specifics would have to fall to someone else.

Standing up, he decided to go and find Ruby. She had occupied a good portion of this his thought lately. He didn't know why, but she was on his mind a lot, and he was worried about her. He sometimes thought she might feel a bit on the outside, given their team was most his old team.

But it wasn't often he got that impression, most of the time she seemed like her normal self. Which he found remarkable in many ways. She didn't ever seem to be beaten down, despite everything she had gone through.

Jaune knew he, Ren and Nora hadn't functioned as well, or at least as normally as she had.

He wished he could of handled the problem life had sent him like she did.

He admired her in a lot of ways, despite the fact she was about two years his junior, she was more well adapted for this world than he was.

Pulling out his scroll, he dialed her number to find out where she was. It rang a few times before she picked it up.

Ruby's voice came through the line "Hello?"

"Hey Ruby, it's Jaune, I was just wondering where you were, I thought we could meet up." He said as he walked out of his room, while not knowing where she was, getting out of the building would be a good start.

"Oh, Jaune! I'm at the place…you know the one…what's it called? It's right by the…" he heard her trail off to look for something "That one place where they have that big sign for their coffee, you know, the one that's always changing."

He was lucky he knew what she was talking about, they had talked about it a bit the other day, this coffee shop was constantly advertising new blends, which neither of them cared to try. "You mean the restaurant next to it?"

"Yeah, that place, meet me there, I've a surprise for you!" He then heard the call cut off.

Jaune supposed he was lucky in this regard, Ruby was terrible at giving directions in this city, she didn't know what a lot of the places were called and usually resorted to some sort of vague description.

But he knew the place she was talking about, it was a restaurant they visited a few times, so without further delay he headed off.

But he wondered what had her so excited. A new Weapon Mod? That didn't seem right. Maybe they had finally gotten some information from Lionheart. That had been frustrating, they had been stalled with the headmaster at almost every turn, and even Qrow didn't seem able to really force the information to come forward.

Granted Qrow wasn't on his best game, he was still recovering and didn't seem to have all that much ambition to push forward.

Well, more like he couldn't. He'd been left untreated to the venom for quite a while, and Jaune knew that was the sort of thing that, the longer it went, the harder it was to recover.

The few times Jaune had seem him, he was slow and lethargic. He'd tried to get a meeting with Lionheart, but he never pushed the issue, he just brought it up and dropped it.

It would probably be a little while before he was back to his old self.

Pushing these thoughts out of his mind Jaune headed off to find Ruby and see what she had been talking about.

As he got closer to his destination, he felt anticipation building in his stomach. He really did hope they had gotten some leads, he felt that when they were staying put in one spot, they were in a rut.

On the road, they hadn't had any new information, at least until Qrow showed up, but it at least felt like they were moving towards some sort of goal or destination.

Sitting around waiting to contacted, felt like doing nothing and he didn't like it. But whatever had Ruby so excited made him think that they may of finally made some headway.

The Coffe shop sign came into view as he walked down the street and before long he saw the restaurant come into view.

Walking right up to the doors, he pulled them open and walked in.

* * *

The mane of blond hair told him instantly what had happened. Yang had caught up with her sister.

He felt an odd sense of joy, but emptiness as well. Ruby had been reunited with one of the people she'd been longing to see. He wasn't ever going to see the person he missed the most again.

He pushed these thoughts away, knowing if he didn't, he'd start to cry.

There was someone else with them, someone he didn't know. He presumed this was someone Yang had meet on her journey. This guy had been through the mill, he had a eyepatch and the whole right side of his face was covered in scars.

As he approached the table, Ruby jumped up and waved him over. It wasn't needed, he had already seen them.

He sat down next to Ruby and said hi to Yang before turning his attention to the stranger. Only now, seeing him from this angle, being able to look him in the eye. IT was like looking at half a picture of a person he'd know, but the left side of his face was left more or less intact.

"Thor?" his voice was much quieter than he intended, but seeing someone he thought was dead, alive and sitting in front of him…He'd never had whiplash before, but he thought he might have a feeling for it now, at least emotionally.

But his friend just smiled at him "Yes?"

Jaune felt his vision fog over, and lightheadedness came over him. He realized with a mind that was losing focus, he was on verge of fainting.

But he wasn't the weak one anymore, he pulled himself back, shaking his head to clear his mind.

"What…how did you…" Jaune stumbled for a bit trying to figure out what questions to ask. After couple moments of thinking, he decided to start at the beginning. "You, where fighting Adam right? How…what happened?"

Thor didn't respond right away, instead a brooding expression passed over his face. Jaune was certain he had touched on a sore point for his friend, but the last information he'd had on him, he was MIA, presumed KIA.

"I had, equipment failure, let's leave it at that." Thor said much cooler than Jaune had ever experienced from him.

But Jaune could tell now was not the time to push the issue. He'd find out some other way, because whatever had done this to Thor wasn't something to be taken lightly.

There was a uncomfortable silence after this short exchange, which Yang finally broke"So, where are Ren and Nora?"

"They're off doing their own thing right now…" Jaune said trailing off, not sure how to describe his friends relationship. He wasn't sure if they were "official" now or not, but it would make little difference to those who knew them, many people had already thought they were a couple. But Jaune had noticed a slight change in them lately, they went off with each other more often than before, and Jaune had a sneaking suspicion they were 'stealing moments'. But he wasn't sure what exactly they were doing.

Whatever it was, he longed for someone, he wanted to share his life with someone like they did. But he also felt like he was betraying Pyrrha by wanting to still have it, with her gone, he didn't know if that would ever happen.

"What kind of 'thing'?' Yang continued on.

"I'm not sure to be honest, I mean, I think they are going on dates, but they are really guarded on it, or at least Ren is." Which was true, and Jaune was certain had it been up to Nora, they would of known about whatever it was they were doing before it even happened.

Yang, apparently losing interest in this topic, moved on. "Ruby told us you guys haven't had any real progress in your search?"

"Yup, it's annoying, but it a weird way, almost satisfying?" he responded, a bit confused himself at this answer. He'd felt this way for some time, but hadn't ever really managed to vocalize it until now.

"How's that?" Thor asked, re-joining the conversation.

"It's just, we shouldn't have this much trouble seeing Lionheart, but here we are, it's like someone or something is keeping us from him, and if that's the case, well, that means there is something worth keeping us from him."

* * *

Thor didn't know about all that, but he did think it was odd they hadn't yet managed to see the Headmaster.

Qrow may have been able to get into see him quite easily, but he was still recovering from his injuries, and wasn't up to much.

As Thor thought on the issue and how to approach it Ruby broke his train of thought. "Where are you two staying?"

"We don't have anywhere at the moment." Thor responded. The room they had stayed in the previous night, they had already checked out of, but they didn't want to waste more money if they could avoid it.

Ruby smiled widely at this "You can stay with us!" She near shouted "Uncle Qrow got us these rooms, there are only two, but if we go three to a room, we can all stay together!"

Thor didn't need more information, they had nowhere to go, and they were being offered a place to stay. A glance at Yang told him she was thinking the same thing.

"Okay, let's head there now." He said standing up, and the other three mimicked his actions, and they all walked out onto the street.

* * *

"After we know where this place is, me and Thor need to do some cloaths shopping, we lost most of our gear and packs on the way here, One of those big Shriekers made us abandon it." Yang said as they made their way to what looked like an apartment complex.

No one responded vocally, but Ruby nodded and Jaune raised a hand to show he understood.

As they entered the rooms, Yang couldn't help but be reminded of her old dorm. It didn't look like it, not exactly, but it felt somehow the same.

She walked around it, and examined the two beds.

"These are normally for students, but we got them because f Unclose Qrows connections here." Ruby said as she watched Yang look around.

"Why are there only two beds if it's meant for students?" Thor said as he looked around.

"We got two of the smaller rooms." Ruby answered "These aren't normally occupied, we were told when the building was built, they had these two rooms sort of "leftover" when the other's were put in, they've been using it as storage up until now, but when we got here, well that stuff got cleared out and they let us have them."

"Well, who'd been sleeping with whom?" Yang asked.

"Well, me and Jaune are in here, and Nora and Ren are in the other room down the hall."

Yang looked from her sister to Jaune, a suspicious eye examining them. But she didn't go one further than this. The two beds were slept in and clearly both in use.

"So…how are we gonna do the rooms? Who's gonna sleep here?" Yang asked her sister.

"Well, I thought, if Jaune didn't mind, he could move in with Ren and Nora, and you guys could stay here, kind like…back at Beacon?" Ruby said, putting her arms behind her back, and kicking at the ground, clearly not comfortable asking Jaune to move out.

* * *

Jaune didn't know why, but the idea of having to leave Ruby made him feel incredibly sad. They'd been sharing this room for a while now. Now he wanted him out.

Well, not wanted, but thought the idea of him going back to Ren and Nora was for the best. But he really didn't want to. He love Nora and Ren like they were blood relatives, but he didn't think he wanted to be in a room with a new and loving couple.

But it was more than that. He didn't want to leave Ruby, for whatever reason, he didn't want to not sleep in the same room as her.

But she had a point, if he went to share a room with Nora and Ren, and let Yang and Thor share this room with her, it would be, in a way, like it was a Beacon.

But him and Ruby would now both be sharing rooms with an active couple. Ren and Nora would be in a room with him, and Ruby would be with Yang and Thor, that made him feel like an outsider. He didn't know if Ruby did as well, but the alternative was for Thor and Yang to share a room with Ren and Nora. That would be four to a room, and them being two to a room.

That wasn't fair, and he knew it. He'd just have to bite the bullet on this. "I think that could work." He said "But we'll have to talk to Ren and Nora fist."

"Okay, well now that we know where the place is, Thor, want to go get some clothes?" Yang said, turning to look at Thor as she did.

* * *

That was the first time Yang noticed his mood, he seemed…well the best word she could think of was distant.

He eyes had glazed over, and he was staring off into space.

"Hey! Thor you there?" she said as she shook his shoulder.

He broke out of his stupor,shaking his head. "Yeah, you know what?" he starting digging in his pocket, and pulled out what looked like all his money. "Could you go pick out something for me? There is something I need to do first." He handed his money to her "I'll call you once I'm done, but I've got to check something first."

That had Yang a bit off-put, but she trusted whatever he did wouldn't take to long, but still she wanted to know a bit more "What do you need to do?"

Thor shifted on his feet a bit before responding "I have to look something up at the library, it shouldn't be long."

Yang didn't like what he said, even though she didn't know why. But she trusted him, and frankly, she had better taste than him too. "Alright, I'll pick out something nice for you, but you're gonna have to make it up to me some other time, alright?"

Thor smiled at her before responding "Alright, I'll see you tonight."

Placing his axe down, leaning it against the wall, he headed out to do whatever research he planned to do.

* * *

The Mistral Library was just as impressive as the one on vale, but he was having a hard time getting to vaults in the basement.

He'd had another dream, and this time he didn't know what type it was. It has bit's and pieces of all the dream types he'd been having. The fear of the stress dreams, the lingering feelings of the prophetic dreams, and lucidity the-the recurring dreams in the darkness.

But he needed to make a choice soon, on how to act. But he had to check here first, to see if he could get any sort of information.

The problem he was having was the staff weren't exactly willing to let this outsider into the vault of extremely valuable and rare books.

He'd been filling out tons of paperwork, and legal documentation for two hours and he was just about feed up with it. He didn't even know if he'd find anything here, but he wanted to have exhausted all avenues before he made a decision.

But eventually, he was allowed into the vaults, where the valuable first editions, signed copies, and antiques were kept.

But he wasn't left alone, an employee looked over him as he entered, and told him that camera's were all over the vault and he'd be on film the entire time he was here.

Thor waved him off, he wasn't about steal anything. Though if he thought he could get away with it, he might of tried it.

Now came the looking for the needle in a haystack.

He went over to the terminal and started searching for anything that might cut his search time down.

He tried searching the names of his family, his people, the weapons they used and more. But nothing came of it.

He'd been looking for just under an hour and was about to give up after trying every search and cross-reference he could think of.

But then he remembered something, that he thought was…well really unlikely to apply here, but was worth the check while he was here.

He looked for books that either hadn't been translated, or were only partially translated. He didn't think this would lead anywhere, the book Blake had found was in standard English.

But he got about a dozen results and started flipping through the visual index. Nothing of note on the covers or in the descriptions. Until that was until he got to the ninth book.

Telltale Runes were on the cover.

A quick look told him where to find it in the vault. He found the drawer and pulled it open and looked in to see the ancient tome laying in its container.

It was old, he could tell by looking at it. It even smelled old. He reached in and picked it up, it seemed to even call to him. The title was written in runes, and with no source of reference, there was no way it could be translated.

But he could read it.

But even then, the title seemed abstract, it read "The Secrets Told".

Not a telling title, but he opened it and started reading.

* * *

The book wasn't a great help, but it seemed to offers some nuggets of information. It was like reading a riddle, and he'd read on the first page "The flow of life will unlock my secrets", he didn't know what that meant, but he could get bits of information from the book.

It wasn't clear, but he'd managed read about "Divine power will return what is true" and "Thunder will return on the call of the divine."

He didn't know what these meant exactly, but he guessed some sort of divine energy might restore him, and his powers would be restored by it.

But there were far more he didn't understand, and the library was closing. He'd have to leave, but he wanted to come back and keep reading the book.

So he'd be staying for at least another day to finish the book.

But as where, from what he could understand, the last book was more a history tome, this one was more of a riddle, it held more answers to his dilemma, or so he felt. But they were not so easily surrendered to him.

The first page still confused him the "flow of life", what did that mean?

He'd ask for help, but no one else could read runes as far as he knew. He'd have to translate it to anyone he wanted help from. He'd have to translate the book's pages into a notebook. He didn't relish the idea, but he'd need to do it if he wanted help.

It would be tedious, but it would be for the best.

* * *

Thor was late and Yang was getting mad. He'd said he would only be gone a couple of hours, but he'd been gone the whole day, and his scroll was turned off.

She sat in the room she and Thor were going to share with Ruby. Jaune has moved into Ren and Nora's room, and had done so in a much more somber mood than Yang would of thought the situation warranted.

But right now she was worried and angry at her boyfriend. He'd been MIA for a significant amount of time, and while she was mad, she couldn't help but worry at the same time. She felt that something or someone was moving against them. Possibly the same force that had destroyed her old school.

The new species of Grimm was one thing both her and her sister had encountered. What was more, this new type changed and adapted in ways she'd never heard of or seen before. The size alteration chef among them, but the fact that they seemed smart and calculating, it was disturbing.

She doubted that any of that had to do with Thor's absence, but still, she was on edge. She tried not to show it, but she was worried. She found that to have been her state of being for the past few months, if it wasn't one thing it was another. She'd thought reuniting with her sister would of alleviated it somewhat, and it had a little, but she still felt anxious.

She was broken out of her thoughts by the door opening. Looking up, she saw the unmistakable sight of Thor strolling in. He wasn't looking at her, or even looking up but at the floor. Like he was deep in thought.

"Hey!", she didn't exactly shout, but he raised her voice.

Thor look startled out of his thoughts, and seemed to just notice she was in the room.

"Yes?" he responded, seem to genuinely be confused by her tone.

"You've been gone all day! You had your scroll off and I had no idea where you were!" She was shouting now.

Realization dawned on his face. He even looked abashed as he responded "I'm sorry, but I found something, it could hold the answers I need."

"What are you talking about?" Yang said in a somewhat softer tone, now curiosity tempering her anger.

"Another book, but…it's different from the one you told me about, this one isn't in English, it's written the language of my people."

That got Yang's attention, and while she wasn't one for scholarly pursuits, this discovery interested her. If it was like the book Blake had found, she kind of wanted to find out what was going on.

"Okay, well, then you can show it to me." She said, putting her hand out, expecting him to present it.

Thor looked confused for a moment, then realizing what she wanted he spoke up "I don't have it with me, it's still at the library."

"Oh…when Blake found her book, she just stole it…well she said she was allowed to have it, but I think she stole it." Yang said as she thought on her old partner.

"We can go tomorrow, unless Ruby has finally managed to an audience with Lionheart." Thor said as Yang shook her head.

"We're being stonewalled on that, until my Uncle can get us to see him, but that's gonna be another two days at least." Yang trailed off at the end of the sentence. She didn't like to think of her uncle in such a state, someone who all her life had seem so tough and strong. Flawed for sure, but tough none the less.

"We'll go tomorrow then. But be ready for some frustration, it took me most of the day to get in." Thor said as he sat down on one of the beds.

"That one's Ruby's, don't get comfortable." Yang said as she plopped down on the other bed.

Thor stood up and walked over to the bed Yang was sitting on and sat next to her. "Where is Ruby anyway?" He said, hiding the slight tension on his voice, worrying about where she was.

"She's with Jaune. They seem…closer since we last saw them."

They sat in silence for a little while, Then Thor started taking his boots off and putting them under the bed.

"Ready for bed already?" Yang asked him as he started to change into his sleepwear.

"Mentally taxing day, and if we want to get into the vault again, we'll have to get there right when the Library opens." He said as he climbed into bed.

"Why would it take that long?"

"The paperwork I had to fill out was ridiculous, you'll probably have to do it too. There are some valuable documents in those vaults, some of them worth quite a bit of money. You'll have to sign all sort of forums to get in."

"Aww…crap." She sighed and let her shoulders slump, but there would be no helping it, if she wanted a look at that book, she'd have to do it.

As she got ready for bed, she wondered if Blake had gone through the same thing when she found the first, or if she'd just stolen it.

Climbing into bed with Thor, they turned the light off and were soon, fast asleep.

* * *

The next morning, Yang woke before Thor had, a rare occurrence in general. She supposed he was mentally wiped. She looked over to Ruby's bed as she stood up. It was empty, but had clearly been slept in.

She'd find her sister later. That was a new thought she'd been having since she'd found her sister, she wasn't as worried about her as before. She supposed it had something to knowing that after all there time apart, she was fine and more than capable of handling herself.

She suppose she'd known that before any of this, but the fact was now there was complete proof of it.

She felt a little sad at this thought, but proud as well. Her sister didn't need her as much, but she was really coming out of her shell.

Grabbing her clothes, a towel and some of her toiletries, she headed for the shower.

* * *

Thor woke slowly, his mind still foggy from sleep. It took him a moment to remember where he was, and then he rose in the bed.

Yang and Ruby were gone, and despite himself, he felt a slight twinge of panic at be alone. But the sounds from outside rooted him in the reality this was not a dream.

The dream he'd had last night was the same dream of the long winding path in the black void. Making his way towards the light in the darkness.

He still didn't have a clue as to what it meant, but he was sure it was something he'd figure out.

The book, or rather books now, he felt held some sort of answer. The one Blake had, or presumably had, was, by all accounts a sort of history book.

The one he'd found was written like a book of riddles, which he was stumped to figure out. He'd never been great at riddles, his brother on the other hand was a true master of them.

But translating it may be his best hope is discerning the true context, someone else whose mind worked in that fashion, Weiss maybe, or Blake herself if they ever meet up again.

His train of thought was broken by the door opening, and Yang walking in, he hair wrapped in a towel, wearing what looked like a very soft robe.

"Just get out of the shower?"

"Nope." She said as she started pulling her clothes out "It was just raining outside, so I took a walk, I really love the rain."

Thor knew he was getting snark because he'd asked a stupid question, so he just smiled and stood up, intending to take a shower himself before they headed out.

"When you get out of the shower, I'll show you the clothes I picked out for you." Yang winked at him as she said this.

He smiled in response and headed for the shower.

* * *

Thor never took as long as her in the shower. Yang had always chalked this up to a girl vs guy thing, but also the fact that her hair took a fair amount of time to clean.

He came back a short while later, a towel wrapped around his waist. Yang couldn't help but be impressed with his physique, even with the scarring covering him.

"Here's the clothes I picked out for you, not the most stylish, but it should be fine until we can get some real clothes." Yang said as she pushed the bag containing the clothes she'd picked out for him.

Thor pulled out the first thing's he could find, a simple t-shirt, jeans, and a pair of socks and underwear.

He got dressed in full view of her. That was something she'd gotten used to form, he didn't seem to have the concept of 'decency' as most people viewed it, he didn't see anything wrong with being naked in from of others, or the other way around.

He was mindful of how other's felt on the issue, and minded it, but around her, he'd long since stopped carrying.

And truth be told she didn't mind. It wasn't even anything sexual anymore, it had just become a none issue between them at this point.

Before long they he was dressed and they headed out to the Library.

* * *

"Oh my God!" Yang groaned as she filled out more and more paperwork "Can't I just have my arm as collateral?!" she gasped out as she signed more and more papers.

The clerk pulled the papers she was signed away from her and-and slipped another sheet towards her.

Thor looked at the paper confused, then looked to Yang, who also looked confused "What the hell is that?" Thor said pointing at the paper, looking at the clerk.

The clerk was short man with dark hair, of unremarkable appearance, and a sallow and bored face. "If you wish to leave substantial collateral to assure the safe handling of the books and tomes, you may, you need to signed this form first, stating you understand any damage to the volumes will result in relinquishing of the said collateral."

Yang's eye's brightened at this prospect, eager to avoid any more paperwork, signed the document, filled out the item description, and took her prosthetic arm off and handed it to the clerk.

With an indignant look on his face, Thor turned the clerk and asked "Why didn't you tell me this yesterday?"

The man didn't answer his question but slid an identical form to Thor "I presume you wish to do the same?"

Grinding his teeth Thor filled out the single piece of paperwork, and noticed un the section for what he'd be leaving, it had two spots, one for actual money, another of items. He filled this section out and took his own prosthetic arm to the clerk, who took both arms and put them under the counter.

"Enjoy." The clerk said, hitting a button that unlocked the doors to the vault.

They walked in and the door clicked shut behind them.

As they headed in, Yang was smirking at him, clearly pleased she had avoided the mountain of paperwork Thor had done the previous day.

Thor for his part was in a bit of a sour mood over it.

Eventually Yang shoved him and said "Oh come on, it's kind of funny right? I mean, I really think you should of given him your leg, that way we'd of given 'An arm and a leg', to get in here." Her voice clearly light and bordering on laughing at her own wit.

Thor laughed, not so much at her joke, but more at her attitude over the situation. That she could joke about it, he thought showed she had moved on, or at least recovered from the incident.

"See, there's a smile!" Yang said, punctuating the comment with a laugh.

"Well, at any rate, here it is." Thor said and he pulled the drawer with the book in it, and pulled the ancient tome out.

* * *

Yang could almost smell the thing, it was that old, just like the one Blake had found. But, she noticed as Thor lay it down on the table, that it was indeed written in some foreign language.

"Wow, it's weird." She muttered as she thumbed the pages, "It's almost like looking at the one from Vale." Which was what was so weird, the familiarity wasn't in the appearance of the book. It was more like a feeling in her stomach.

The pages were thick, almost like construction paper. But they didn't feel like paper, not exactly. The cover was bound in Bronze and Ironwork, intricate weaving patterns, whereas the one Blake had found was more or less Leather and maybe some wood.

In truth the books only had passing similarities, but she could help but feel she was looking at the same book.

"You see, it's all in runes." Thor spoke to her right, pulling her out of her thoughts.

"Yeah, I mean I don't know what Runes are…"

"More or less my people's alphabet." Thor said "Not sure how much help that will be though, the whole thing is written in riddles."

"Like what?"

"Something about the "flow of life" will unlock it's secret, and other phrasing of similar sense." He said rolling his left shoulder.

"Well…What's the 'flow of life' then?" She asked, not expecting a answer so much as hoping to start the discussion on it. "If we can figure that out, maybe we can unlock the other riddles."

"If I knew, I'd of done it already." Thor sighed. "But, what I was hoping to do, with your help is to translate the pages. I can read them to you and you can write them down. Then maybe we could get some more input on them."

"What! I don't want to have to write, I'm right-handed Thor, and I just left that at the visitor entrance."

Thor seemed to realize this, and while he didn't want to write and read at the same time, he was ambidextrous, and he'd be able to written much faster and better than her.

"Well, how about this, I'll read and translated, but you turn the page when I'm done so I don't have to break my flow."

"Ugghhh, fine, this is going to be a boring day no matter what isn't it?" Yang said, slumping her shoulder

"What is a day at the library anything but?"

* * *

Yang was thankful the book wasn't overly long, and that Thor was surprisingly fast reader and writer. But he'd slipped into an almost trance-like state where he wasn't reading out loud anymore, but rather mumbling under his breath, and tapping his foot on the ground when he was done with page.

She was a big fan of the almost gibberish he was saying at first, but now it was becoming a suffocating silence.

They'd been here for hours now and she was about to finally snap when Thor said "Done." Setting his pen down.

"Oh, thank God." Yang said, standing up to stretch.

Thor followed suit, stretching his arm and back.

Looking back at the book, Yang couldn't help but wonder something. The last book had illustrations of the Viking art, like a textbook almost, this one was more of a novel in layout, or at least from what she could see visually.

Flipping the cover closed to examine it again, she couldn't help but be impressed by the metalwork, the art style was interesting, but really was the fact the while the iron and bronze both looked old, they didn't seem to degraded to any real degree. Running her thumb along the metal etchings, she suddenly hissed in pain and put her thumb in her mouth.

"What?" Thor said looking at her.

She pulled her thumb out of her mount and saw a fairly deep cut on it. Activating her aura, the cut healed quickly but there was a few drops of blood on the table, but thankfully none on the book. She didn't want to have to forfeit her arm because this book of riddles. "I just nicked myself on the metal bindings, nothing big." She pulled the book to her and opening it, wanting to look at the runes again.

But they weren't there, just a single line of text written in English "The flow of life will unlock my secrets."

"Thor…am I going crazy or is this in English?" Yang said rubbing her eyes.

Thor looked down at the tome, and his eyes widened, and sure enough the tech had changed.

* * *

"The flow of life." Thor muttered "It must be blood, blood will alter it, make it readable to who ever's ever blood touches it."

"But there isn't any blood on it." Yang said in a confused tone, looking at the cover extra hard.

This was a type of magic he'd seen before, and there was no blood because the book absorbed it as a sacrifice.

"So we just wasted a whole day translating this thing into English." Thor grumbled, looking at his stack of notes.

"Well, maybe not ,at least now we have a copy we can take with us." Yang said flipping through the pages. "Unfortunately, blood just seems to translate it, it doesn't solves the riddles." Yang looked disconcerted at this news.

Thor was also be bit upset that the opening was more or less a translation riddle, not something to solve its contents.

"Well, I think we've gotten as much as we are going to get out of it today, let's head back, maybe the other's can help figure some of these riddle out." Thor said collecting his writing as Yang brought the book back to the drawer.

"I sure hope that magically translating a book doesn't count as vandalism, otherwise we're going to be a lot lighter when we leave."

Thor hadn't thought of that and walked to the drawn and opening it. Pulling out a knife, he placed it between his teeth and bit down hard to hold it steady. He sliced his palm, dripping blood onto the tome.

Activating his Aura, he healed the cut and put the knife away, and opening the book to see it had gone back to the rune variation.

"Well that should cover it." Thor said as he pushed the drawer shut. "Let's head back."

* * *

Yand was jittery as they waited for the-the clerk to come back with their arms. He didn't seem to be in a rush.

When he finally did come back he gave them each other's prosthetics. Swapping arms, they headed back to their rooms.

They didn't talk much, and when they did the conversations were short.

When they got back Ruby was sitting on her bed, tinkering with Cresent Rose.

"Where have you know been? I feel like I haven't seen you in forever!" She said jumping to her feet.

"Doing research, how's Uncle Qrow?" Yang responded, plopping down on her bed.

"On what?" Ruby said and she sat down on her own bed to look at her sister, ignoring the second part of his sisters statement.

Yang looked to Thor for a fraction of a second, and he gave her a quick nod. They planned on telling Ruby, but she felt it was up to Thor when it should happen, given this was related to him. "A book, like the one Blake found, but…really more like a book or riddles."

"Ohhh, I love riddles! Can I read it?" Ruby said excitedly.

Before Yang could respond Thor threw the bundle of papers on Ruby's bed, "Couldn't take it out." He said "But that is everything that is in the book."

"Cool…." Ruby said as she started to flip through the pages.

"So…How is Uncle Qrow?" Yang asked again.

"He's better." Ruby said, not looking up from the handwritten document "He even went to a bar, I think he's going to see Lionheart tomorrow, then we might get some answers. But Lionheart won't see us directly, at least not yet."

Yang huffed at this "The guy is a Headmaster, he should be used to seeing students."

"Yeah…he just… doesn't…library." Ruby muttered, her voice trailing off.

Yang looked to Thor and they both smiled, she was clearly entranced by the writing.

"So Ruby!" Yang said and slightly raised tone "What's up with you and Jaune!?"

"He just..you know…" She said clearly not paying attention.

"Ohhh! Do you like him?" Yang said with a smile at Thor dragging out the word 'like' to put emphasizes on it, who smirked back.

"Yeah…" she mumbled, still reading.

Yang's smile dropped and she looked at Thor, who was still smiling.

"Ruby." She said, putting her hand on the handwritten book. "What was that?"

Her view obstructed, Ruby looked up. "What?"

"You like Jaune?"

Ruby blushed at this "What? I didn't say that!" She looked to Thor for help, to hope he confirmed it "Did I?"

Thor, still smiling, just nodded.

Ruby went a deeper shade of red.

"Oh my God, you actually have a crush on 'vomit boy'!" Yang nearly yelled, half laughing.

"No I…shut up!" Ruby nearly yelled, her face blazing now as he stood up and threw a pillow at her sister.

"It's okay!" Yang said as she dodged the attack. "I'm actually glad you started to like someone, I was worried you'd never start to."

Ruby hunched her shoulders, and covered her face with her hands, clearly mortified.

"Ruby." Yang said in a much softer tone. "It's okay…it's…you like who you like, there is nothing to be ashamed of."

Ruby looked up to her sister, face still red, and some tears on her eyes, but some level of hope in them.

"When did you…start to like him?" Yang asked hesitantly.

"Awww, Yang…" Ruby moaned, but looked into her sister's eyes, and saw that she would be left alone "It was back at school, a little while after the start of the first term."

Yang raised an eyebrow at this, clearly not believing it had been that long. "That long?"

"I know it's weird, but he was my first real friend, and, well…We were both weirdos leading teams we really didn't have a right to be leading, and…" Ruby hesitated a bit at this point "I think he's kind of …cute…" he mumbled.

Yang was sucking in her lips, trying not to laugh. Her sister already had issues coming out of her shell and she didn't want to hurt her feelings.

Jaune was the biggest dork she'd ever meet other than her sister, and the fact her sister liked him, and had for so long, was funny to her.

Instead of laughing, she decided to just ask the obvious question "So, you tell him yet?"

Ruby shook her head, blushing. Picking up the pages again, she started to read again.

Yang looked at Thor, smiling ,but wanting to keep asking her sister questions. But she knew her sister was at the "breaking strain" and was pushed to her limit.

Deciding to leave it alone till the next day, Yang changed the subject. "So…anything you notice in the riddles?"

Ruby looked up, her color returning to normal, and her temperament more calm. "Well yes, actually."

She picked up the a page and point to it. "It says 'The the eaters of the dead, the Wendo come with the mist', you don't think that's the 'Shriekers' do you?"

Thor stepped forward and looked at the passage Ruby was referring to. "That's actually pronounced as 'Vendo', and I don't think so." He said pronouncing the W with a V sound.

* * *

Thor had read the passage and written it down, but hadn't considered it much. The Wendo were an old story of the people who worshipped his people. They were real at one point, but hardly monsters, just a tribe of humans, or near humans, who were particularly savage, even by Viking standards, eating their victims.

Granted the Grimm they had encountered did come in the mist, but they were truly animal-like. The Wendo were humans, more or less, in appearance and ability.

"The Wendo were a tribe of humans, primates, but savage, but no Grimm." Thor said.

"Oh…it's just, the mist…" Ruby said a bit subdued.

"A coincidence, but the Wendo only came with the mist, they didn't generate like the Grimm." Thor said placing a hand on Ruby's shoulder. "But keep reading, maybe you'll find something else useful." Thor smiled as he said this.

Ruby smiled back, and started to read again.

Thor smiled at her as she was engrossed in the reading again. He personally didn't have much of a mind for riddles, but Ruby night, she loved to read stories, and maybe that would make her more appropriate for the task than him.

"You read, I'm heading to bed." Thor said and with that started to change to go to sleep.

* * *

Rudy was embarrassed with the revelation of her secret. But she was thankful that her sister and Thor had moved on from the subject pretty quickly.

She did like Jaune, and had for some time. But she felt like she didn't have any right to. First was Pyrrha, she felt like she was in the right before her. After her death, she felt like she needed to give Jaune space.

But her feelings for him hadn't ever changed, and she had been tortured by it for what felt like forever. But now, she wanted to tell him, but didn't want to at the same time. She was scared he would feel the same way.

Right now, she just kept reading the notes or translations of the book. But she couldn't help but feel the "Wendo" were related in some way related to the "Shriekers", the 'Eaters of the dead", that came with the mist and fog.

Thor had said it was a coincident, but she didn't think so.

As she read into the night, while her sister and Thor slept, until she felt a hand on her shoulder.

She was startled at first, but as she looked up, she saw Thor's scarred face as he smiled.

"Little sister." He started with his pet name for her, "Is there something on your mind?"

Ruby flushed slightly at this and said "No! Just reading these notes." Her tone was quiet in respect to her sleeping sister, but still loud enough for Thor to hear.

He smiled as he sat down on her bed next to her.

He spoke after a moment "I know you are afraid of the letting your feelings be known," He said.

She looked at him and saw he wasn't looking at her, but rather at Yang, clearly thinking of something.

"I'm not afraid of-" She began, bur Thor raised his hand to silence her.

"Yes you are, it's clear on your face." He said. "But let me tell you this, fear profited no one ever." He said still looking at her sister.

"Let your feelings be known little sister, or if you don't, it will haunt you, I'm sure the Arc boy is haunted by similar feelings now. Leave nothing to doubt." He looked at her now, his one blue eye looking into her silver. "Make your heart now, and even if he doesn't feel the same way, at least the doubt will be gone."

Ruby was confused at this, and frankly didn't know how to responded, so just asked "But if he doesn't feel the same way-"

"Then he doesn't feel the same way, it won't end the world." He said bluntly, and frankly that didn't make her feel any better. She thought he noticed this because he kept talking "It will be awkward, and uncomfortable for a while, but it will ease after a while, and it will fade. But the question of "what if?", will linger forever if you don't find out."

With that, Thor stood up and headed back to the bed he was sharing with Yang, and climbed in with a gentleness that didn't wake her sister.

She watched as her sister, even in her sleep, reached out to embrace Thor, and he welcomed it, and soon drifted off to sleep.

Watching them, Ruby couldn't help but think of Ren and Nora, and she suddenly felt more lonely than she ever had in her entire life.

* * *

The next day was hectic to say the least. Qrow, hand managed to speak to Lionheart, but the answers he'd been given were not helpful in the least.

The students in question, the culprits at the fall of Beacon, were not of any real note, other than their skill level. Their fourth member, the one in the tournament, wasn't even a student.

Yang felt like they hadn't made any progress in their search at all, and this was feeling like a dead end. What was more, her Uncle was disappearing on some sort of business, of which he wasn't telling them anything.

But the news feed was what was really upsetting her. Outlying towns were being routinely and violently attacked by "Mist Grimm" as the media had dubbed them.

The few scattered reports that reached Mistral always mentioned Mist and a horrible howling noise. But what was concerning Yang was, the investigations of these towns always resulted in no bodies being found.

Grimm didn't actually eat people, they just killed them and destroyed their structures, but no bodies were being found, which was truly odd/

It was scary to think of these new Grimm and the new activity they had taken up. She felt that this unknown quality was scaring people more than the fact of the attacks themselves. Grimm were a well-known threat at this point, but when they started acting in ways that weren't considered normal, that made people uneasy.

She was frustrated, not only from this news of attacks, but her Uncles sudden secrecy. She felt stuck, and scared, and despite her attempts at not showing it, she was certain Thor was aware of it, and she thought Ruby and Jaune might be picking up on it as well. Maybe even Ren was picking up on it, but Nora, bless her heart, didn't seem to pick up on it.

Thor seemed to be thinking much more than he normally did, he gaze seeming sometimes off in the distance.

Eventually, Thor brought an idea to her she didn't like at all.

"I want to head out into the wilderness and investigate these…whatever we want to call them, the Mist Monsters."

"You mean you want 'us!' to head out right?" Yang said putting emphasizes on the "Us", part.

"No." Thor said somberly " I mean me, and just me."

Yang started grinding her teeth at this, and was ready to fire back at him. But he started talking again.

"This is not a combat mission, research only, and that can be done better with just one person…besides." He said, glancing at her "Your sister needs you, she has no clue how to handle her feelings for the Arc boy, you need to help her with that."

Yang felt that was a weak excuses, but it was true in way, Ruby had no clue how to tell Jaune how she felt. But it wasn't nearly enough of a reason to let Thor go and do what he wanted. But she didn't want to leave Ruby, and here Thor was offering her a ready-made excuse to stay.

"Well…You promise not to get into a fight?" She asked, trying hide here nervous nature.

"Of course." Thor said as he leaned in to kiss her, but she turned her head so instead of on her lips, he kissed her on on the cheek.

He seemed confused at first, but if he was he shook it off quickly enough, and smiled at her. He seemed to smile a lot, she realized in that moment, not counting her long depression, he seemed to be always in an almost unnatural level of good cheer.

"I'll be back in a couple days, no more, then we'll get back to working on this mystery we've been working on." Thor smiled as he said this, but Yang noticed it was forced, and she couldn't help but feel, she was neglecting something.

But despite this, she didn't say anything as he walked off, towards the borders of the city.

And she suddenly felt that this was the last time she was going see him.

"Thor!" She called after him. He stopped at this and turned to look at her.

The quick patter of footsteps hit his ears before she wrapped her arms around his neck, and kissed him. This time, she kissed him on the lips, and the passion was real this time.

Yang tried to convey all her emotions and fears in this kiss, but she felt it was never going to be enough. Still she kept the connection for as long as she could before breaking it.

"Come back to me…okay?" was all she could manage to say to him.

He smiled, again she wondered about this habit of his, but pushed it out of her mind.

"I'll return in no time, just wait and see." Thor said, breaking the embrace, but still holding her hands, looking into her eyes. "I will return."

Those were the last words he we spoke to her as he made his way into the wilderness. Yang could help but feel she should go with him, to make sure he was okay. But these thoughts were stopped by her need to look after her sister.

Within the next few days, she'd find herself regretting the decision to let him go on his own, to leave him to the wilderness and the Grimm, without her there to look after him.

* * *

 **AN: Okay Please Review.**

 **Also, if you can catch the reference, tell me what you think it is, and if you're right, I'll accept an OC of yours for an event in this story coming up.**


	11. Eaters of the Dead

**AN: Okay, here's another chapter**

 **I'd like to Thank DragFire, The Critic (I'm assuming all under this name are the same person) and LightnigStrife for leaving me reviews.**

 **Still looking for a Beta reader, I feel a lot of the mistake I make could be solved with a pair of outside eyes.**

 **I know I have a problem with pronouns, not that I don't know the proper ones, but rather I just type the wrong one by mistake. I'm trying to fix this, but it's kind of hard for me to catch my own mistakes like this, I know what I meant to write, so I overlook a lot of these mistakes, my mind just fills them in when I re-read.**

 **I'm also thinking of giving my chapter's actual names, so if anyone had suggestions for that, including past chapters, I'm open to it.**

 **Well, Read and Review, thanks for coming.**

* * *

Chapter 10

* * *

As Ruby read the notes Thor had taken in her room, she felt like she was looking a puzzle where all the pieces were all the same color or close to it. These "riddles", were weird and she couldn't help but feel like she was missing some context information. There were references to things, events and people, or maybe gods, that she didn't recognize.

Thor would probably know what at least some of these were, but he was going to be gone for the next few days. But he'd probably only be able to really help with context, by his own admission he had no mind for riddles.

Granted Ruby didn't think that was true, if he cared to try, she thought he could if really tired. He was much smarter than people who didn't know him would expect him to be. But she'd noticed that if a topic or task was of little interest to him, he couldn't concentrate or perform it well.

She was the same way in that regard, if not in all the same fields. But in this field, she liked riddles and stories, but these were…weird.

Even in English, terms and names still seemed foreign. The Wendo was an example of that, if Thor hadn't told her what they were, she wouldn't of had a clue. She had the idea in her head that they were the same thing as the "Shriekers" or "Mist Mauraders", but Thor had been pretty adamant that they were not the same.

Ruby still thought there might be a connection, but it wasn't really worth thinking about it more until there was more to go on.

She was certain that the book Blake had would help decipher some of these riddles, at least providing context she didn't have.

But it was frustrating that Thor hadn't bothered to maybe make a reference guide to go with some of these terms before he left. But she supposed that in his mind at least, these terms weren't foreign at all, and it had just slipped his mind.

Sighing, he put the notes down and rubbed her eyes, and looked out the window. It was dark and Yang still wasn't back yet. That wasn't unexpected, but she still wished she'd be more regular with the time she came in.

She'd never been that way, she would show up when she did and that was all there was to it. But Ruby was feeling stuck and wanted to talk to her sister. These riddles were not revealing much information, or at least nothing she could understand. Lionheart was, she was pretty sure, stonewalling them, her Uncle was going off to do things he kept hidden from the rest of them.

Then there was her and Jaune, an issue she was not at all ready to approach again, yet felt an incredibly strong compulsion to try and do something with it.

She didn't know it was possible to feel stuck and at the same time, feel like things around her were moving in ways she either couldn't see, or couldn't understand.

She wanted to talk to her sister, and she wanted to right now.

* * *

Jaune wasn't sure what he was feeling right now, as he wandered the streets of Mistral. He felt a weird loneliness since Yang and Thor had caught up with them. He'd moved into Ren and Nora's room, and while they shared a bed, they'd never done anything to make him uncomfortable, but he felt like he was intruding on their space when he was there, and had taken to walking around the city until the sun went down, sometimes even after it.

He wondered if Ruby felt the same way, having to share a room with her Sister and her sister's boyfriend. Part of him said yes, but he also thought Ruby's more…innocent view of the world might of curb the feeling. What was more was she was sharing a room with his sister, whom she'd known her entire life.

While he considered Ren and Nora as close as family, they had know each other for years before Beacon.

He knew it was stupid, but he felt almost like an outsider in his own group of friends, they were all bonded to at least one other person in the group, either by blood or by relationship. He felt that if they had another single, none blood relative, in the group, this feeling would be less pronounced, or he'd at least have someone who could relate.

He'd found Thor had been helpful back at school when he was having other issues, but now, he didn't consider it much of an option now. For one, he was dating Yang, and for two, he'd gone on a scouting mission and wouldn't be back for a couple days.

He'd thought maybe he could talk to Qrow about it, he was the only person he knew to any real degree in the city, but he squashed that idea as well. He wasn't overly fond of Ruby's Uncle, he respected him, he was a heavy drinker and Jaune still felt he was at least partially responsible for Pyrrha's death.

He knew part of that feeling was him projecting his own guilt over his weakness and inability to do anything, but he also did truly feel that group shouldn't of dragged her into the whole ordeal. Strong as she was, she was still just a student.

Jaune felt tears stinging his eye's and quickly wiped them away.

He hadn't gotten over it, and didn't think he ever would. It didn't hurt as bad as it had, but sometimes it just to seem to wash over him and he felt the strength go out of his knees.

As his mood started to darken, he felt his scroll vibrating in his pocket. Coming out of the his mood, or at least enough to answer the phone, he checked the caller ID. It was Ruby.

That made him feel better for some reason. He hit the button to answer the call and said "Hello?"

Ruby's voice came through, a bit distorted. When it was on local signal only, sometimes the connections weren't as good. "Hey Jaune, you wanna come over to my room and help me with something? I've got this…book I guess, but I can't really make heads or tails of it."

"Umm sure…I mean I can, but isn't Yang there? Can't she help you?"

"She just called me, and she told me she's going to out late tonight, something she needs to do. She didn't tell me what, but she's said she tell me tomorrow, but anyway, you want to come over?"

"Yeah, I'll come on over, I'll be there in fifteen minutes."

"Okay, see you then, bye." Ruby said on her end of the line and clicked her phone off.

Jaune didn't know why but he felt happy to have something to do, because frankly since they got here, they felt, or at least he did, they were spinning their wheels here right now.

Pocketing his scroll, he headed off to meet up with Ruby.

* * *

Ruby had called Jaune because Yang had called her and told her she wouldn't be back tonight. But she didn't want to be alone and wanted to talk to someone. After Yang, Jaune or her Uncle would be the net choice, but her Uncle had sort of floated off a bit in the past few days. She still saw him around, but he seem preoccupied with something he wasn't telling them.

But she trusted he'd tell them when he thought the time was right.

The knock on the door brought her out of these thoughts. Jaune didn't wait for her to answer, he just walked in, the knocking was just a courtesy, this had been his room for some time before Thor and Yang had arrived.

"Hey Ruby!" His tone seemed unusually happy, at least for the situation. "So where is this book?"

Ruby just smiled and handed the handwritten pages to him. He looked confused for a moment, and looked to her.

"It's not really a book, but more…I guess it is a book, at least all the contents are, but Thor copied it to these." She gestured at the stack of papers.

"Okay…well, let's see…" Jaune said as he started reading, and confusion started to cross his face. "Why is it written like this?"

"That's my issue, it's all in these riddles, and I've been trying to figure them out, but it's…I'm having such a good go of it." Ruby said, kicking the rug.

"Okay…next question…why do we need to do this? Or is it more of a for fun?"

Ruby raised her eyebrows at this, and was about to tell him why it was so important…then she realized she didn't know why, or even if it was important. But Thor had spent a good amount of time writing down, and she didn't think he'd do that unless absolutely had to. And her gut told her it had to be done.

But she didn't have anything to really tell Jaune in terms of facts related to doing this. "It's just…I think we need do it, like…there might be answers here." She said, speaking more on feelings she hadn't even totally realized she was having until she vocalized it. "You know what my Uncle said, about the gods, the Grimm and the relics…this is from a really old book, may there is something in there that's useful?"

Ruby felt stupid the way she worded this, but it was how she felt, and had expressed to Jaune the best way he could.

* * *

Jaune didn't know if Ruby's line of thought held any water, in fact he was pretty certain it didn't. But they didn't have any other leads in this journey of their's, at least until they started to get more cooperation from the older hunters who were more involved than them.

"Okay, let's see then." He said deciding to go ahead and give it a shot. It only took him to get to the second page before he knew this way wasn't going to get him anywhere. "Ruby." He said, going to sit down on the bed, still looking at the papers. "How have you been trying to figure this out?"

"Just kept reading them, hoping that…I don't know, it would start to make more sense once I was done." She paused at this, "It didn't." She finished.

"Well, why don't we try this, we just take the first page and just work on that before anything else." Jaune said and he picked up the first page and set the rest down on the floor.

"Okay, let's try that." Ruby sat next to him as they looked at page he was holding. This one had three riddles.

"Okay, so the first one says ' That which crushes sleeps in the mother of its owner until the divine is broken', Jaune read out loud, still just as confused as the first time he'd read it. Ruby called these riddles, but to him it felt more like a code or some kind of fortunetelling.

"I don't get it." Ruby said shoulders slumping.

"Yeah, I'm not getting this, let's try the next one." Jaune said, moving down to the next verse. "Okay this one says 'The stone and earth birth forth the mightiest of warriors, born of the sky and earth' Oh my god, this makes no sense!" Jaune groaned, looking at the ceiling.

"Well…let's just look at the last one, then we can go back to the first." Ruby said, pulling the paper out of Jaune's hands and reading the final line. She'd read it a few times but hadn't committed it to memory. "Okay, this one say ' The mightiest warrior holds the crusher in his hand, casting his foe's to the earth in ash.' Okay yeah, this isn't making any more sense to me now that it did an hour ago.

"Okay, let's think." Jaune said, rubbing his temples "Maybe these are linked somehow, let's look for common ideas or terms." Jaune said standing up and retrieving paper and a pen to start writing notes down.

"Well, the 'mightiest warrior' is mentioned in the second and third one, maybe it's the same person?"

"Okay, sure that make sense." Jaune said writing this down. "Anything else?"

"The Crusher." Ruby said "It's mentioned a couple times, maybe it's a person related to the warrior?"

"Alright." Jaune said writing them down. "It say's the crusher sleeps in the mother of its owner." Jaune said, starting to chew on his pen "Maybe the crusher is like an animal or something, it has an owner, and it sleeps within the owners mother…" Jaune said more to himself than Ruby.

"Wait so it's sleeping with its owners mother? That's-"

"It reads more like it's inside the mother of its owner, and the second line got me thinking. The warrior was 'birthed of earth and sky', I think in this case, 'mother' isn't literal, more…figurative, like maybe the warriors home country or nationality."

Ruby felt like for the first time since she started reading these notes that something were starting to fall together. She'd been reading them all as individual riddles, not thinking they may be interlinked.

She didn't know if this was correct or not, but it was better than just staring at the paper with no idea of what to do.

"What do you think 'break the divine' means?" She asked Jaune, who was chewing on his pen.

"No clue…" He mumbled.

The general feeling was of little forward movement. Ruby felt like they had made some progress, but not enough to understand. Thinking back to puzzles again, she remembered how her and Yang would sometimes work on different parts of the puzzle, and each out end up with parts of the whole picture, but still unable to really tell what it was.

Her thoughts wandering back to her sister, she wondered what she was up to.

* * *

Yang never considered her self much of a stealth expert. Her general personality and appearance made staying low-key hard most of the time.

But now with her wild hair pulled back into a ponytail, and bandana covering the top of her forehead, a hood pulled up and her sunglasses on, she was making her best attempt at it.

Her clothes were as plain as she could find, and her scroll was on silent.

As she followed her target, she still had no idea what would be considered a good distances to observe from. She was certain that if she got too close, she would be recognized, even with her disguise. But if she was too far back, she might lose her target and wouldn't be able to hear them if they spoke.

But she had to find out what was going on here.

"What are you up to Uncle Qrow?" she whispered to herself as she tailed her Uncle down the streets of Mistral.

She thought she was doing a pretty good job of it so far, he didn't seem to notice her. Normally she wouldn't of thought it was possible for someone of her skill level to trail her Uncle without being noticed. But she knew he wasn't on the top of his game, he was still a bit out of it from the venom, and he, as was his habit, not taking care of himself like he should to recover.

He turned into a tavern and she lost sight of him. Picking up her pace just a little, she slipped into the same tavern and scanned the room.

She spotted her Uncle sitting at the bar, his back to her.

She sate at a table, and watched him drink.

A waiter came over to take her order, but she just asked for a soda, wanting him to get out of way.

The waiter didn't seemed to pleased with this, but took her order and walked off.

Yang turned to look at her Uncle, doing her best to try and watch him out of the corner of her eye rather than look right at him.

As she watched him, a young boy dark hair approached her Uncle. She didn't see where he came from, but she was certain he didn't come from outside, as she was sure she would of seen him coming in, so he must have been staying at the tavern.

Yang didn't get a good look at his face, but Qrow and him exchanged some short words, and got up to leave.

As they walked out the door, Yang looked at the floor, trying to not draw attention to herself.

She waited a minute before getting up to follow them, and when she went outside, she worried she might of lost them.

This was unfounded as she soon spotted them walking down the street.

She followed them until the reached the outskirts of the city, at which point they boarded a Bullhead and flew off somewhere.

Yang knew that was the end of her tailing her Uncle. No way she could afford to get a Bullhead to follow them, and even if she could, there was no way to do so with any sort of secrecy.

But, even though she hadn't found out anything specific, she knew Qrow was meeting with and doing…something, with this kid.

That was a big mystery in her mind, but she doubted she'd ever manage to figure out what it was unless her Uncle actually told her, unless she trailed him again and they went somewhere else.

She looked at her scroll, and saw it was only a little past midnight. She had expected to be out the whole night, but Qrow had slipped her and now she had nothing else to do.

Ultimately, she decided to head back to her room, she doubted Ruby would be upset she was back early.

* * *

Yang opened the door to the room she shared with Ruby and Thor as quietly as she could. I was now just past 1:00, and she thought Ruby might be asleep.

As it turned out she was, but Jaune was passed out right next to her. Were it not for the pages of notes scattered around them and the bed, she may have been inclined to think something less…savory had occurred.

But they were both fully clothed, and it looked more like they had just nodded off while working on some sort of project.

It was sort of sweet to look at them like this though, Ruby's head was resting on Jaune's chest, and he'd wrapped his arm around her and his hand was resting on her shoulder.

Pulling out her scroll, she took a quick picture, and put it away before looking at what they were working on.

Among the numerous pages there was one page from Thor's translation of the book. Judging by the notes on the other piece of paper, they had been trying to decipher the information.

They looked like they had made some progress, but still, not all that much. If this effort was to yield any real results, Yang believe that they would need Thor here. He might not be great at deciphering or riddle work, but he probably understood the context of the information and nuances better than any of them. No, that wasn't right, she knew he did.

Ruby may not know the importance of these books, and in truth, Yang didn't either, but Thor thought it held answers, and that was good enough for her.

* * *

Thor drove the jeep he'd rented to the end of the dirt road to the bridge he and Yang had come across on their way Mistral. Putting it in park, he climbed out and walked to the destroyed bridge.

Looking into the gorge, he noticed that the mist had gone. His problem was he didn't know if the bigger versions of the creatures generated the mist or not. His encounter with the larger version may have been in a natural fog, the location was centrally conducive to it. Ruby's encounter was mixed with the smaller ones which he knew generated the fog.

But he needed to go back down, they had left the silver-steel down there, and it was too valuable to let go. He had other things to see to, but this was on the way, but he didn't want to climb back down if he could help it.

Luckily he thought of this. Walking back to the jeep, he pulled out a length of cable and found a large tree. He lightly tied it around the trunk of the tree and picked up the other end.

He retrieved a rifle from the trunk of jeep and attacks a harpoon head to the barrel. This wasn't a normal rifle, it wasn't much use in a fight, but was use for navigating terrain that needed rope or cable to be attacked over large gaps.

Attaching the cable to the spearhead, he lined up a shot with a heavy and healthy looking tree. He fired it and it struck home, lodging deep into the trunk.

Returning to the end he'd tied to the tree on his side, he undid the knot and pulled the cable until it was tight.

He secured it to the tree and when he was sure it was tight, he went back to the jeep. He took out a rope harness, and his survival pack.

After this he grabbed the cable and climbed onto it and started to make his way across.

He hung under it like a sloth, and started to move across the cavern.

Once he was above the area he was certain he and Yang has camped at. He fastened the rope with special clips that would keep it from sliding, and attacked his rope to it, and then lowered himself down.

The descent only took him a few minutes, but he was leery of potential attacks. But nothing came, and soon their bags and sleeping gear came into view.

Although he didn't feel like the Grimm were in the area, he didn't want to spend more time on the ground than he had to.

Dropping onto the ground, he went to his pack first, knowing where the silver-steel was. It took him less than a minute to find it, the bar of metal was stored in his new pack and we want to Yang's and simply dumped the contents out on the ground.

The bar of metal shone in the light and he gathered it up just as quickly and started to ascend back up the rope.

Once he was back up to the cable, he finished crossing the gorge and got his two feet back on solid earth. The first thing he did was go to the cable attachment to the spearhead and undid it and re-tied it to another tree.

With that taken care of, he pulled out the map he brought with him. This one was more up to date, as far this area went anyway, than the one he and Yang had used to transverse the continent to Mistral.

The town they had gotten the silver-steel was on this map, but so were several other's that he didn't even know were there.

From his understanding, in this unprecedented time of peace, Mistral had decided to try and expand more so than any other point in the past.

But in the past year it had all come crashing down. Now these towns were almost completely isolated, and many had stopped communicating with the main city altogether. He was certain they had been destroyed, as they now no longer had the support of the city-proper, or had the advantage of a Grimm repellant like the town they had passed.

One should have been only an hour from his current location on foot, and he was surprised they hadn't run into anyone on else on their way here. That was unless of course they had already been hit.

He'd check it out, and hopefully, figure out what was going on. Grimm attacks were being blamed, but not bodies were being left behind, Grimm didn't do that, at least as far as he knew.

They may now on or chew their targets, but they didn't generally consume the whole body.

There was something odd going on, and he hoped he'd find out what.

* * *

The town, or settlement, whichever, was abandoned, as he knew it would be. The blood streaks were all over the place, but not bodies. As he also knew from what had been circulating around the city. So not bandit's or Grimm, but then what?

There were prints in a few places on the ground, and to him they looked like a horse, only maybe four or five times the size of a normal horse.

The Shreikers may of made sense if they took their targets underground once fully grown, but there were not tunneling signs and something had left these tracks.

This was eerie, and he pulled his ax out, ready to fight if something decided to attack him. The signs of the attacks were clear, whatever did this had hit them too hard and fast for the people to make a proper defense, only a few weapons lay here and there, but there were no real signs of them being fired or missed shot, at least in any real numbers.

But there were those tracks, and what left tracks, could be tracked. He doubted he'd have a hard time of it, whatever did this didn't seemed concerned with stealth, there were signs of them all over the place.

The tracks ran up one of the dirt roads that lead to the settlement. The tracks weren't on the road he'd followed to get here, so whatever had do this came from one direction, and now, it was time to follow the trail.

* * *

The tracks didn't stay on the road for long, and eventually went off onto the woods. The trail made by whatever had done this was near enough to a road on its own. The tree's were knocked over and vegetation was crushed flat.

The game trail, which was a close a thing he could think of to compare it to, ran as far as he could see, into the hills and mountains.

He wasn't sure he wanted to go that far into the wilderness after something he had no idea what it was. But he was here, and he didn't back down from a challenge. He'd just have to use more caution than he normally would have.

Setting off down the game trail, he kept his ax out, and ready for combat.

* * *

A whole day of traveling and he'd come to the top of a large hill, or maybe it was a small mountain. But this was where he'd camp for the night, or at least in the general area.

He started looking for some sort of rock of substantial size, he did not want to sleep on soft dirt, just in case.

After thirty minutes of looking he found a suitable rock and set up his camp. He didn't light a fire, again out of fear of altering something to his location. Instead he ate and climbed into his sleeping bag.

He tried to sleep, but it didn't come easy for him, and when it did, it was not rest full.

* * *

Thor awoke suddenly in the middle of the night, and at first he didn't know why.

Looking around, expecting to see Yang shaking him awake. It took him a moment to remember he was on his own.

Standing, he looked around to see if something was near him, but there was nothing. The moon was out on the clear night, and his visibility was decent, and he just couldn't help but feel there was something to worry about.

Then he heard it. It sounded like a fog horn or train horn, but like it came from an animal as it died off, in a in almost growl like quality.

From the top of hill he was on, Thor looked around to see if he could spot what was making the sound, but even in the fairly decent light, all he could see was mist rolling down the side of one of the mountains in the distance…

The call came again, and Thor was sure it was coming from the mist.

"What the hell…did they change again?" Thor muttered to himself. Then he saw a point of light emerge on the top of the hill. Before he knew what he was seeing, the light seemed to elongate, and twist down the side of the hill, growing longer and swerving, like a great snake.

He had no idea how long this…what ever it was…was but it stretched from the top of the mountain it was on to the bottom, and more than the length of it. And still seemed to slither onto some unknown destination, seeming to grow longer.

The light was red as the fire's Muspelhiem, it was like it was the body of a great snake. The idea of a giant serpent made his blood run cold. 'It couldn't be here, could it?'

Driven by fear of what may have followed him here, he ran towards the great beast, intent of killing it before it could bring the destruction to this world.

* * *

As he neared his target. Thor knew it wasn't the world serpent. The thundering of hooves made it clear these were not a single entity.

What was more, he was now certain this was what he was looking for. But, he knew he needed to be careful, if he was caught, he didn't care how strong he was by mortal standards, he was still mortal, and the apparent numbers of whatever this was, he'd be overwhelmed.

Whatever they were, they had left him in the dust with their speed. But he still had a plan.

Walking along the trail they had made until he found the largest and sturdiest tree he could find. He climbed into the its branches and waited.

He had every reason to believe they would return the same way they came, given what he'd seen at the settlement. He didn't know how long he'd have to wait, but he's stay until sunrise at least.

But, as it turned out, he didn't have to wait that long. He heard the horn like howl from, whatever it was, and heard the thunder of hooves. The vibrations in the ground came soon after, then the mist rolled in.

Gripping his ax, ready to fight if it came to that.

The red light started to appear down the path, and before long he saw them.

They were Grimm, but not like Grimm he'd ever seen. The Knuckleeve Ruby and Jaune has described to him was the closest he could think of.

But these Grimm were humanoid in shape, but much larger than a normal man, and they rode atop Grimm horses that fit the size of the tracks he'd seen. But they appearance varied from one to the next. They looked like men wearing animal skins almost, but the headdress varied from one to the next. Some looked like they were the heads of Ursa, other's Beowulf or Nevermore, and virtually any type of Grimm he'd ever read about.

He saw now the glowing red was a large weapon like growths on the arms of the these Grimm, they varied, some looked like clubs other spears, and some stiiill swords. They were bone white at the hilts and glowed like the eye's of a the Grimm themselves, and noticing this Thor notices that all the Grimm heads on the body's of these creatures, they eye's were blank.

If he didn't know Grimm bodies dissolved on death, he'd of the thought they were men wearing the skins of slain Grimm.

The cavalry charged under him for fifteen minutes before he notice the most bizarre thing about this group.

There were men, normal men, riding on some of the Grimm horses. He didn't noticed at first because of the masks they wore.

Those masks were clear as day, White Fang.

He didn't understand in the least, how could the White Fang ride safely with a horse of Grimm?

Thor's Thoughts were broken by screams and wails.

Now he noticed that the Grimm and White Fang had people tied up and on the back of there terrible mounts.

Women, children, and men, tied up and being brought to whatever hell this unholy alliance could think of.

This explained the lack of bodies, they were being taken.

It was another half hour before the massive hoard passed under him.

Climbing down, he started to follow them back up the mountain to where ever they were going.

He knew he couldn't save the people he'd just been taken, not as he was, but he needed information, so this could be stopped.

* * *

As he crested the top of the low mountain, Thor looked down into a valley, cover in fog.

He did not want to go down into it, but knew he had to.

Slowly, he walked into the mist.

He had to fight the urge to try and clear an area for himself, because as much as he wanted to, he didn't want to waste the energy or possibly alert something to his presence.

But the screams helped him navigate the near blindness of the fog. He wanted to rush in, to help, but he knew it would be foolish to do so. He'd just be killed and no one would know what was going on here.

As he made his way through fog, he noticed the closer he got to the screams, the clearer it became.

Soon, he could see object clearly, and then a short while after that, the fog lifted completely.

But the screams didn't stop.

He followed the sound until he came to what looked like a smaller valley within this larger one. And he saw a most bizarre and horrible scene.

Tents and temporary living scatter among the valley floor, with stockpiles of weapons and equipment, and people in cages of wood, with the White Fang pulling them out one at a time. The larger creatures, the humanoid Grimm, surrounded the area, making horrible sounds that were almost human-like in nature, but still animalistic, almost looking like they were cheering as one person at a time was lead to the center of the camp.

At the center of this valley and makeshift camp, was the most vile looking Grimm Thor had ever seen. It looked like the Mist Mauraders, but far, far larger. This thing had to be over a hundred feet long, and had a body thicker than he was tall.

It had no eyes, but its head was bone-like, like may Grimm, with a large beak and mandibles like a crab for its lower jaw.

Looking up over the rest of the camp, Thor spotted at least three more Grimm like this one, all surrounded by cages of humans.

Thor couldn't help but watch in horror as a young woman was lead to the great beast, fighting and kicking the whole way.

It was at this time Thor notice a Beowulf walking up the creature on its own accord. Both the woman than Beowulf stood before the giant Shreiker, and before Thor could guess was what happening, Large snake like tounges shot out of the Shrieker, snaring the woman and it's fellow Grimm, and it swallowed them whole.

It ate both the woman and Grimm, and the humanoids all let out a roar at this.

The large maggot like Grimm pulsed for a moment, then for its tail, an black mass of a tar-like substance Thor had seen once before, from another large Grimm, spilled out.

From it, emerged two figures. One, a humanoid Grimm with a Beowulf style headdress, and great Black Horse Grimm. It raised a glowing red club and hollowed at it entered the world.

But at the same time, the humanoid Grimm gnawed on human limbs, eating the dead that could not be taken alive.

* * *

Thor watched for another ten minutes, trying to spot any leaders in the White Fang. He noticed a man he didn't recognize, a tall, powerfully built man with a bear, bossing the White Fang subordinates around. But this man looked human, although Thor knew some Faunus could look perfectly human sometimes.

It wasn't until an all too familiar person came to call him off that Thor saw someone one familiar.

Adam, the man who had remained him and Yang, was a part of these mass abductions of civilians. He looked more haggard than the last time Thor had seen him, but there was no mistaking the man, his red hair and horns were a dead giveaway.

He wanted to head down there and even the score, but knew he'd accomplish nothing in the long term other than getting himself killed.

It was time to go, he had what he needed to know, and if he stuck around longer, he only ran the risk of getting caught.

As quietly as he could, he made to leave the way he came. He double-timed it as he moved and didn't plan on sleeping tonight, he'd head straight back to Mistral, report what he saw, and hopefully, something could be done about it.

As he ran through the mist, he couldn't help but think about what Ruby had suggested to him before he left. The Wendo being the Shriekers had at the time seemed unlikely. But, now that he was seeing them…change or modify themselves into their current form, and how they did it. Eaters of the dead, they came with the mist, and were human-like in appearance.

"Well Ruby." He said to himself without even thinking of it "Wendo it is."

He's just made it out of the fog when a chill ran down his spine. Someone was tailing him, he was sure of it.

He stood there for a moment, waiting to see if whoever it was would attack him. They didn't and he continued on, but constantly on the lookout for a sneak attack.

He was moving as quickly as he could back the broken bridge he had crossed to get back to his jeep and report this when he heard a rustling behind him. Pulling his ax off his back he swung it and stopped in a inch away from cutting the head off a very familiar and friendly face.

"Blake?"

* * *

Were it not for his distinctive scent, Blake would have had no idea this was Thor, at least at a distance. Up close, she recognized his eye's, or eye as it was now. But the fact he was alive, the pure shock of the idea when she had smelled him while she tracked Adam, she had to find out if it was him.

Sure enough, when he spoke, she recognized him. "Thor…I thought you were dead…" She whispered.

Thor just smiled at her and placed his ax on his back. "No, you ex-boyfriend couldn't finish me off that easily."

"What happened? How did Adam beat you?"

"He didn't, or at least not completely, my equipment failed, and literally blew up in my face." Thor said, in even measured tones.

Blake wanted to ask more, but didn't want to push the issue more. Instead she asked "Have you seen any of the others?"

Thor nodded "I've been with Yang, more or less, since the school fell. We've meet up with Ruby, Jaune, Nora and Ren in Mistral."

"What about Weiss?"

Thor just shook his head "No word from her."

Blake felt sadness at this. She felt the team was close to reuniting, but Weiss, as much as they bumped heads, was part of the team, and she missed her.

Thor spoke again "What about you? What have you been doing?"

Blake didn't feel like bearing her soul, but the truth was probably the best policy in this situation, even if it was an abridged version of it.

"I re-connected with my family, and an old friend. We deiced we needed to take back the White Fang to what it was, but what I've been seeing…I'm not sure it's worth saving."

"You mean the Grimm?"

"Yes…it's more disturbing than anything I would of ever thought. I can't even understand how it even came about, working with Grimm."

"It's not him or the White Fang, that one man, the big one with the beard, I think he has something to do with it."

Blake sighed a this, she thought he was right, but wasn't sure how.

"Well, we have to get going." Thor said "If we want to get to my jeep before nightfall, we'll have to move at top speed-"

Blake cut him off "What do you mean 'we'? " she asked.

Thor looked confused at this, and asked her "Aren't you coming back with me?"

"No…I mean…not yet." She started "I've got to meet up with my team, we'll meet up with you guys in Mistral in a few days." She looked into Thor's scared face, and saw he didn't really believe her, but didn't push the issue.

"Yang would really like to see you." Was all he said calmly. They looked at each other for a while before he spoke again "Yang said you had a book, one about…my people."

Blake wasn't surprised at this, or rather she thought she wasn't supposed to be. He'd been with half of her old team for some time. It would of come up at some point.

"Yeah, what about it?" she felt like a kid caught with her hand in the cookie jar, even though she knew she hadn't really done anything wrong.

"Do you have it?" Thor said, looking at her with a calm face.

"Yes." She said pulling out of her pack. That was the weird thing about this book, she didn't want to leave it alone and carried with her almost all the time.

She held it out to Thor and he took it. She felt like she was returning something that didn't belong to her to its rightful owner.

Thor took it and put it in his pack.

"I'd try and convince you to come with me, but I feel that would be a waste of my breath…" He trailed off, his eye's becoming unfocused and looking over her head.

"What-" She barely had time to ask before he pushed her hard to the ground.

If she hadn't caught a glimpse of the blade as it whizzed past he cheek.

She rolled to her feet, as saw Thor batting away a blade with his prosthetic arm.

* * *

Thor didn't know who this was, not at first, but the fact they had snuck up on him and Blake worried him.

He felt a hot burning sensation on his left cheek, but he had pushed Blake to the ground to keep her from being run-throw with the blade.

He turned on his heels, and saw a familiar face.

It was the girl who had been the personal bodyguard of Roman Torchwich. Only now she looked extremely disheveled, and looked like she hadn't bated or changed her clothes in weeks.

What was more alarming to him, was her eyes. They were wild and unfocused, but at the same time completely determined.

She smiled at him, her blade brandished in front of her. She lunged again, and her sidestepped it, but as it passed in his nose, he smelled something foul. It made his eye's water and he felt the urge to sneeze.

But his fighting instinct and adrenaline rushed his system, clearing his mind.

The girl seemed totally manic, her eye's, which once showed a playfulness he didn't completely understand, were not wide and erratic.

He knew her boss had been killed in the fall of Beacon, but he'd never thought they were so close she'd seek revenge for him.

But that seemed to be the case here. If she was following the White Fang or if she was affiliated with the other faction, he didn't know. But she needed to be ended here, one way or another.

She lunged at him, and he was too slow to avoid it, but he let the blade sink into his robotic arm. Once it was in deep, he gripped the blade, holding it firmly.

He raised his ax to her neck, and yet she never stopped smiling.

He drew the blade across her neck. He was certain the image would shatter, like it had before.

But instead, a spray of blood came forth, and drenched him. Yet she was still smiling as her blood ran over him.

He let go of her, and let her drop to the ground, but the smile still graced her face.

He could of sworn she tried to laugh as she died on the ground, but he didn't care.

Thor placed a hand on her shoulder, and despite being his enemy, he wanted to let her go to the next world with some level of assurance or help.

"You fought well, now go in peace." He muttered as the light left her eye's. She still smiled as she died, and Thor was certain it had something to do with an unknown factor he was sure he probably knew, but didn't realize it.

* * *

Thor had broken off from Blake an hour ago, and after the attack from Roman's former bodyguard, he'd made as fast a pace he could to her jeep.

He and Blake had agreed, he wouldn't mention their encounter until she managed to make her way to Mistral. Which was by what she told him, only a few days from by Blakes estimation.

But the girl he had killed, he'd left her body in the wilderness. He didn't like that, but it was not something he could help.

But, as he approached the broken bridge, he was feeling sluggish. He didn't know why, but he was feeling weaker. He knew he'd been exerting himself more than normal to get to his vehicle

His cheek still stung, and it wasn't healing like it should, but it was a minor annoyance.

The broken bridge came into view. His cable was still intact, and he affixed his harness to it and started to cross. He could see the jeep still sitting where he had parked in just the other day.

He was maybe halfway across when a sense of faintness come over him. The world started to spin and he let go of the cable. Had he not attacked the safety harness, he would have fallen into the gorge.

He just hung there for a minute, waiting for the spinning in his head to stop. It took him a minute to realize it wasn't his head that was spinning, but him as he hung from the cable.

Gripping his safety rope, he pulled himself back up to the cable. The rest of the journey across was a sickening, and he almost lost his grip a few more times.

But he managed to get across and collapsed on the ground. Pushing himself up, he vomited and rolled over onto his back.

This wasn't simple exhaustion, this was something else. His cheek seemed to be throbbing. He touched it again, and it stung so violently that his eye watered.

That was when he realized what was probably going on. The look on her face, even as he slit her throat, and she bleed out. Her manic behavior and apparent lack of regard for her own defense. The burning in his eye's as the blade passed over it.

This was a poison or venom, it was on her blade and she knew once it was in him, it was as good as done. Or he had to believe that was what she thought. Her own indifference to the lethal injury he gave her and the smile she wore as she passed on, made him think she was certain he'd die from whatever she hit him with.

He needed to get back to the city and get treatment. The problem was he was now several impaired.

Grabbing his knife off his belt, he stabbed himself in his left hand.

The pain shot up his arm, and he suddenly felt the world clear up. The shock of the pain had spike his heart rate, and given him enough energy to sit up and crawl to the jeep.

Climbing in driver seat, he threw his ax and pack into the passenger seat. Starting it up, he started driving erratically, and far too fast to be safe, but he needed to get back to the city as fast as possible. If he died out here, it would fall to Blake to report what was seen, and despite the fact he thought of her as a good person, her nature was to run.

He didn't want to leave it to chance that she might not show up, or show up to late to tell them anything they needed.

The journey was only remember by him in fragments and the last thing he recalled was seeing the lights of the city as he crossed a massive bridge to reach it.

* * *

"Is he going to be okay?" Ruby asked the Doctor as she looked at Thor in his bed. Yang was sitting next to him, holding his had as he slept.

The Doctor looked at her, his face neutral "He should wake up in few hours, I'm still not sure what exactly is wrong with him, but we've managed to stabilize him. He's been poisoned by something, and his current treatment will help, but we need to know what exactly did this to him before we can make any real progress." He looked at his clipboard after he was done, showing none of the panic Ruby was feeling, which comforted her, if he was this calm, Thor had to be alright, right?

"I need to go see other patients, you can stay with him if you want, he should wake up soon and it will be better if there are people he knows around." The doctor said and with that he turned and left the room.

Ruby looked at her sister, and while she was trying to hide her concern, Ruby knew her sister too well to be fooled by it.

"He's going to be fine." Ruby started "The doctor said the treatment will work, we just need to be patient."

As she finished and before Yang could respond, Thor started to stir.

He just moaned at first, and then he opened his eye, and looked around. "Am I in a hospital?"

"Yes." Yang said first, stroking his arm "you're safe, and the doctors are treating whatever poison is in you."

Thor made to sit up but dropped back into the bed. "Where's my bag?"

"Here." Ruby said, producing the bag that Thor had last seen in the jeep.

Thor held out a hand for it and Ruby save it to him. He started to look through it, careful not to let the book he'd obtained be seen.

After a minute or two, he pulled out the two ingots of silver-steel he'd retrieved.

"You found it." Yang stated rather than asked.

"We're going to need it, and more if we can get it, I saw something out there, and I'm certain before long it will be coming here."

* * *

Yang's blood ran cold at this, more from Thor's expression than what he said. He looked scared, and she knew not much scared him.

"What did you see?" Ruby asked, her voice with trace amount of fear.

"The Shriekers, Mist marauders, whatever we want to call them. They're worse than we thought." He said looking from one sister to another. "They've grown massive, more than a hundred feet long each." He looked at Ruby as he said this, as she was the one who told him that both creatures of the mist were the same. "But now, they eat other Grimm and people, and produce something…I don't know how else to described it as man-like, but like a man crossed with a monster of Grimm."

"Wait, so they are..what. making an army?" Yang asked, confused.

"Yes, they capture humans and feed them the large ones which then make the man-Grimm and amount. These creatures also have formed primitive tools from their bodies." Thor said looking Yang in the eye." But what was more disturbing is the fact I was I saw humans working with them, or Faunus I suppose, the White Fang was helping them capture people."

That scared Yang, the idea of Grimm working with people to some kind of goal. That level of thinking was scary, and it scared her the White Fang would stoop to this, although she thought it shouldn't surprise her.

"I'll go tell uncle Qrow." Ruby said, eager to do something productive."Anything else I need to tell him?"

"Only." Thor began "That I think the surrounding villages have been more or less wipe out, they will come here soon."

Ruby nodded and ran out of the room, leaving Thor and Yang alone.

"So what happened to you?" Yang asked after a few minutes of silence.

"Torchwicks bodyguard, I think she was sticking with the White Fang, or at least following them. She attacked us and managed to scratch me." He pointed to his cheek to show his point. "But he will to fight was clearly gone, I killed her shortly after her first attack." Thor sighed at this "She was clearly certain he venom would kill me, because she smiled as she died."

Yang was surprised to hear this, but she thinking of Thor phrasing of the attack "What do you mean by 'us'?"

* * *

Thor knew he'd screwed up when Yang asked him that question. He didn't have a way out of this other than to outright lie or tell the truth.

He didn't want to break Blake's confidence, but he didn't want to outright lie to Yang either.

"I ran into Blake out there, she was trailing the White Fang." Thor said.

Yang looked like she'd been poleaxed. She just sat there for a minute, eye's wide as she stared at him. After sitting in silence for some amount of time, Thor spoke again.

"Before you asked, she said she'll meet up with us in a few days. She asked me not to tell any of you she was this close, but I messed that up."

Yang stood and looked like she intended to go find her partner. Thor grabbed her wrist to stop her.

"It will be a waste of time to try and find her, she won't be in the same area still, and it's simply too dangerous now even try. You have to trust her."

"Trust her?! She abandoned us Thor, went off to God knows where!"

"I know, but you have to try and trust her word, because trying to find her will more than likely be a waste of time, and possibly be very lethal." Thor said looking her dead in the eye. "Trust has to start somewhere, so let it start with you."

* * *

Yang had calmed down, and Thor, deciding now that the cat was out of the bag, he pulled the book out that Blake had given him. "Give this to Ruby, I'm sure it will help with the other book."

"Don't you want to read it?" She asked, while still taking the book.

"I've looked through it a bit, but she'll get more use out of it while I'm here getting better." THoe said smiling. The truth was he did want to read it more, but he felt like this one was needed to properly decipher the other, and he wasn't going to be doing any of that while he was here.

"Okay, I'll bring it to her." She said, looking at the clock, visiting hours were almost over. "I'm gonna have to go soon, I'll be back tomorrow, okay?" She said standing up, and kissing him on the cheek, and turning to leave.

As she walked out of the room, Thor's doctor came back in.

* * *

"How are you feeling Mr. Odinson?" The doctor asked in a polite tone.

"Much better now."

"Well, I'm glad to hear it." The doctor said "Frankly, I'm surprised you're alive at all, the venom in your system is unlike anything we've seen, far more potent than what we'd expect. I honestly think you should of died a hour after it was in you system." He said looking at his clipboard. "But we are treating you the best we can, if you know what this is that would help."

"I'm sorry, but I have no idea what type of poison this is."

"Well, so long we keep you on that drip." He said pointing a the IV bag "You'll be fine in about a week. But I have to warn you, if you go off that drip, the effects of venom will come back strong. It may even kill you." He said, his face and tone serious "So while you may want to get out of here sooner, I must warn you leaving prematurely could kill you."

* * *

Yang thought about what Thor had told her about Blake, and she was mad and happy at the same time. She was happy at the prospect of seeing her friend again, but was still mad at her for leaving.

But she pushed the thought out of her mind, she wanted to be acting normal when she meet up with Ruby, and probably Jaune, once she got back their room.

As she opened the door to the room, she noticed the air felt heavy. Ruby was on her bed, and Jaune was sitting next to her, arm around her shoulder, rubbing her gently.

"Is everything alright?"

Jaune answered, while Ruby just looked at the floor. "Ruby is worried about your Uncle, she went to see him and he was…well he was trashed."

"So, he's always drinking." Yang said, but confused by this, it wasn't good, but it was nothing new.

"Yang!" Ruby near shouted "This was his "normal drunk" self, he was mumbling and ranting, I could barely understand him. It was scary, he didn't seem like himself." She said in near tears.

"Well." Yang said as she tried to change the subject, and pulled out the book Thor had given her. "Thor thought you might want this, to help with your deciphering." Yang couldn't help but feel this was a weak gesture to comfort her, but it was all she could think of in the moment.

Ruby looked curious as she took the book, then she looked confused. "But I thought Blake had this ?"

Going wide-eyed, Yang realized she'd done exactly what Thor did. Well, might as well tell her, no point in hiding it anyway.

"Thor ran into Blake while he was out there." She began, and couldn't help but feel bad as Ruby's face started to light up, because she knew what she need to tell her. "She's not here Ruby, she told Thor she'd make her way here in a few days."

Ruby's face fell bit, but her mood did seem to turn around. "As long as she come soon, I really miss her."

Well, it wasn't perfect, but her sister seemed to of rebounded a bit. "So, did Uncle Qrow say anything you might think was important?"

"He said something about "'using the kid' and 'all his fault he also mentioned 'he lost it', I didn't hear more before some Haven teachers pulled him off somewhere to sober up. I told them what Thor said, and they said they tell Uncle Qrow."

Well, it wasn't the best way to get information out, but at least the people who needed know, would now know.

Her sister calmed, and somewhat mollified by the return of the first book, Yang felt like she needed to go to bed.

* * *

 **AN: Okay, thanks, Read and Review.**


	12. Reunions and Rites

**An: Okay I'd like to thank everyone who review last time**

 **The Guests, DragFire, and RedFalconWriter.**

 **Johnnyfiveoh, I'd like to thank you as well, but by you own admission, you didn't really read my story, so while I appreciate the you took, I'd of liked it if you had read my work.**

 **Well, here is the next chapter, still looking for a beta.**

 **Well, enjoy.**

* * *

Chapter 11

* * *

Thor knew something was wrong, with the way the doctors were talking about him and around him. They whispered and kept saying the tests were "still being worked on."

He knew what this meant. It was bad, whatever it was, but they weren't sure either of what exactly it was or how bad it really was. He'd seen this before, they did this to keep panic down. Which made him think whatever was wrong was either contagious, or the doctors thought it might be.

He knew he wasn't feeling better since the initial drip had been put in his arm. The effects had diminished considerably, and he did feel better than he did before he was in the hospital, but the sense of overall sickness still hung over him.

Word from the what was happening outside came from either Yang or Ruby, sometimes Jaune, and at least that seemed to be heading in the right direction.

The city had reached out to the settlement he and Yang had stopped in. From what he was told, several tons of the metal were shipped out, back to the city. Thor didn't know how they would use it in a defense, making a wall out of it or with it would be useless, it wouldn't cover the perimeter of the city, or probably even one block, but there were other options.

He'd have liked to talk to Qrow about it, but Ruby said her Uncle was not in any condition to talk. Something bad had happened to him, though he appeared to be physically fine.

Thor knew this…whatever had happened, had disturbed both the sister. They were worried about their uncle, but didn't seem to know what the issue was, or how to help.

A knock on his door broke him out of his thoughts, and looked up to see someone who wasn't his normal doctor or nurse.

This was a woman, one of the doctors he'd seen a bit of, but never spoke to.

"Mr. Odinson." She said quietly, closing his door. As she did this, he could have sworn the temperature dropped ten degree. "I'm Dr. Reily, I'm the one who's been running the tests on you blood work."

"Hello doctor." He raised a hand to wave, but didn't want to drag out whatever it was she was telling him, he thought for sure it wasn't good.

"There isn't an easy way to tell you this, but we've done as many tests as we can, and we only now have a fair idea of what's wrong." She spoke with a professional tone, but was far kinder than his normal attending doctor. "We thought it was a type of venom or poison at first, but after the tissue sample from the injury and blood work, we know not that's not the case, not entirely at least."

"How can that be? 'Not entirely', how can it only 'part' venom?"

She sighed and sat next to his bed on the chair Yang usually occupied. "This wasn't a normal poison. Whatever you were hit with, was a bio-engineered weapon, there is no other explanation for it."

"How can you be sure of that?"

"Your blood" She said "It's full of parasites we've never seen." She pulled out a file and showed him images of what looked like snakes. "That is a microscopic view of your blood." She said "They are feeding off you in some way, we don't fully know on what, but they are secreting some sort of venom, and that's what poisoning you."

"So." He said in a measured a tone as he could "How do we get them out?"

The look on the doctor's face told him everything he need to know. "We can't, and normal treatments we might have tired don't seem to be working."

"So, what are you saying?"

"I'm saying…we can't treat you." Her face was sad, genuinely so, but Thor could tell she had given similar news many times before. "We can keep you on the drip, but even that is losing effect."

Thor looked at the floor for a moment, she hadn't said it outright yet, but he knew where she was going. "How long do I have?"

"A week." She said softly "A little more or less, we can't give this sort of thing an exact number, but it won't be long, if you don't have things to set in order, I suggest you do so." She stood up and placed a hand on his shoulder "I am sorry we can't help you. We can discuss options, not now if you don't feel up to it, but we'll have to do it soon."

"What options?"

"Well, the treatment won't keep working, and when it stops, it's going to hurt, we need to talk about if you want your 'pain managed'." She put emphasis on the last two words, hoping he'd get the meaning. 'Pain management', in the right context, with terminal patients usually, was code for physician-assisted suicide, to avoid a protracted and unpleasant death.

But she received a bit of a shock as she looked into his face. He was smiling, and it wasn't fake, she'd seen that often enough. This was a genuine expression of joy.

"Thank you." He said "But that won't be needed, I'll last long enough for something else to end it."

She was a bit befuddled at this, but returned his smile and made to leave the room, asking one final question before she left "Is there anyone you'd like us to call?"

"Yes." He said far too calmly for someone given a death sentence "Yang Xiao Long and Ruby Rose if you please, they are at Haven now."

"Yes, I'll get right on that." She said then left the room and closed the door.

She told a nurse to call Haven, and deliver the message that the two girls, Ruby Rose and Yang Xiao Long, come as quickly as possible. She didn't talk to the girls directly, but left a message with the staff.

She'd given many patients the news they were terminal. But none had reacted the way this one did. He seemed almost happy to hear the news. Most either shut up or lashed out, but he was at peace with it. She knew from her experience what someone who was "okay" with their death, but was really putting up a front, looked like.

But not here, not with him. He was currently at the emotional level of people who had been dealing with their death for a fairly long period of time here. He was at the acceptance level already.

That was very unusual indeed. But he was an unusual individual, his medical history and his pure vitality showed someone who did not go down easily. In fact, he shouldn't of even made it back to the city with this parasite in his system. If it were for his unusually potent Aura, he'd have been dead, and probably the only reason the treatment he was on now worked as well at it did was his own Aura assisting in the healing process.

But the test showed it was only slowing the inevitable. The only thing that was good about this was the parasites didn't seem to be able to live outside of his body, and therefore couldn't spread.

That was the odd thing, even went transferred into other blood samples, they died almost instantly. It was truly bizarre, but for now, it was a good thing that it was at least contained.

* * *

Yang watched as Ruby and Jaune poured over the book and the notes. The return of the first book had seemed to re-ignite Ruby's initial enthusiasm for trying to decode the second book.

Yang honestly couldn't tell if they were making progress or not, but they seemed to think they were.

She might of even helped, but she had other things on her mind. Blake still hadn't shown up, and was well overdue for the time she'd been told her partner would come back. She was angry and scared at the same time. Part of her thought Blake had bugged out and run off again. But another part of her brain was telling her that she may have been hurt or worse.

Her Uncle was at the worst point of his life as far as she'd ever seen. His drinking, while never really handled well, was now totally out of control and he spent most of his time drunk or unconscious. With him out of commission, there one link to Lionheart had pretty much been destroyed. Other than the occasional information given from his assistant, a polite yet indifferent woman who taught at the school.

Then there was the apparent looming threat of a Grimm attack supported by White Fang soldiers. The city was preparing, and all hunters and hunters in training were on notice.

The Silver-steel was a point of contention with many in the preparations. It was divided into two camps, those who wanted to make weapons out of it, and those who wanted to build defensive structures out of it.

The argument for the weapons was they could be moved to where ever they were needed. And they could make more of them.

Those on the defensive side argued that with no known enemy numbers, they couldn't be sure if they could make enough to fight off the Grimm, but defensive structures would repel them.

Yang looked over a map of the city. All hunters and trainees had been given one. They were on tablets that constantly updated with assignments for when the attacks came, what the defense structures would be.

The problem Yang was seeing was it constantly being changed. Mistral was the largest Kingdom, and by extension had the largest capital city. There weren't enough Hunters and Huntress here at the moment to defend against a large-scale attack.

The City's natural defenses were excellent. Mountain to the north and a massive canyon to the south , east and west.

The area where Thor had seen the Grimm and White Fang was to the south, meaning they were on the other side of the canyon. That brought up what to do with the four bridges that crossed it.

Some wanted to trap them with explosives, and if an attack came, they'd blow them up. The opposition to this was if mass evacuation was needed, doing so by air wouldn't be an options. Not enough ships, and nowhere enough dust to full the ships needed to make that many trips if it was needed.

There were people in the middle ground who just wanted the bridges most likely to be attacked to be destroyed. But then there was the point if the attacks came from the air, no bridges meant they were stuck.

The paths through mountains may allow some to escape, but they were so narrow, they would bottleneck up quickly.

The pure bureaucracy of all these issues, it was slowing down any real work towards defense. She wasn't sure who she agreed with, but if the enemy came knocking and they were still discussing what to do, it would be a disaster.

The City was well defended most of the time, but so was Vale. The Grimm on there own, even these new ones, wouldn't of normally been of much concern to the capital city of any kingdom. But this was different and way the powers that be didn't seem to fully comprehend.

These Grimm were working with people in some capacity. That was part of the reason Vale fell, the Grimm attacked had been coordinated with White Fang assaults and the hacking of Atlas hardware.

These Grimm were smarter than the average Grimm, and she didn't know what that meant in a fight.

But what worried her the most was the people in charge knew where these things were held up. They hadn't taken Thor's word for it of course, but the scouting party they sent out had confirmed the reports.

The prevalent theory on their actions right now as they were sweeping the area around the capital first, and if what Thor had said was true, and she had no reason think it wasn't, they were eating, or rather feeding the people, to full-grown versions of the Shriekers. These overgrown maggots would then eat another Grimm and this would somehow result in the humanoid Grimm and their mount.

This lead to the idea they were building up numbers before the assault on the city. The estimation of the people of all the villages and towns that had been lost, assuming all were taken, was sitting somewhere between 50,000 to 200,000.

All reaming towns, villages and small cities and settlements had been ordered to evacuate to the main city, and that meant, sooner or later, they were going to realize there were no more people to take, and then they'd come here.

But the scariest thing was they took people living, they didn't kill them outright, but took them to be eaten by the giant worms. But they took the dead to, there was no way they could raid the towns without killing someone, yet no bodies were found.

Thor had told her the humanoid ones seemed to be eating the corpses of the those killed in attacks, which she also didn't understand. Grimm didn't need to eat, or at least she didn't think they did, they feed on negative emotions and death itself. That's why they just killed people and destroyed their building, why would they be harvesting dead bodies to eat?

The ringing of her scroll broke her out of this line of thought.

"Hello?"

"Miss Xiao Long? This is the RA for the dorm you're staying in. I've just gotten a call from the Mistral General Hospital, one of the Doctors said your friend there wanted to see you and your sister."

"About what?" Yang said, hiding the nervousness she felt.

"She didn't say, just that he wanted to see you."

"Okay, thanks." She said and hung up. It probably wasn't that bad, he was just getting stir crazy and wanted to see someone. "Ruby?" She called "Come, we're going to the hospital. "

Her sister looked up from her work, then looked to Jaune "Go on, I'll keep working on this."

"Okay." She stood up and put on her boots.

A couple moments later they were out the door.

* * *

"What do you think Thor wants?" Ruby asked as she walked next to her sister.

"Probably just bored, whatever poison was in him was probably as bad what Uncle Qrow had, and he still isn't completely better yet." Yang decided to leave out that their Uncle's slow recovery was likely due to his own bad habits just as it much as it was for the venom.

"Yeah, I bet he's board out of his mind there, I hope he get's out soon." Ruby muttered.

They continued on talking about simple things, like the weather, weapons modifications and so on. Yang had given half her Silver-steel to her sister, she didn't need much to modify her weapons with, and Ruby had in turned shared the rest of out with Jaune, Ren and Nora.

"It's crazy to think a metal could hurt Grimm, I mean that's a huge discovery. Weapons and Armor made of the stuff, I mean imagine if Atlas made their robots out of that stuff." Ruby was so excited over this discovery Yang couldn't help but smile. It was a bit like back before the fall, and she was glad to catch the moment.

But then Yang caught something out of the corner of her eye. She had to do a double take to make sure she saw what she saw.

"Blake?" She whispered, not quite believing her eyes. Ruby heard this, and turned to look in the direction Yang was looking.

"Blake!" she shouted and tackled her friend and teammate and throwing her to the ground.

"Ruby, please." Blake said frantically, "I'm happy to see you too but…"

Before more than a moment had passed Yang was pulling her little sister off their teammate.

"Ease up there." She said setting her sister down on her feet. "Blake, I know you're gonna give me an explanation, but…" She trailed off, looking at her partner. She looked horrible, her clothes were in tatters and there were huge bags under her eyes "are you okay?"

"No…I'm not." She was clearly shaken " Yang, I was heading to the school, Sun is heading to the Council, Yang they're coming, we need to get ready."

Ruby asked the question Yang was about to "Who's coming?"

Before Blake could answer, a loud Horn like roar echoed into the from South. It sounded like a foghorn or trumpet. Ruby and Yang looked, and in the mountain and hills a thick and heavy fog rolling over the top towards the city.

* * *

Jaune was reading the book Blake had given to Thor, and this one was far easier to understand. It was written more like a textbook, which wasn't exactly engaging to him, but it at least had illustrations and wasn't written in vague poems or riddles.

But the sound of…a horn? Broke his thoughts, looking out the window, he saw the fog.

He didn't know for certain if it was the Grimm they had encountered or Thor, or just the weather. But he was suddenly scared that he wasn't with Ruby.

He picked up his sword and shield and ran out of the room to make his way to the hospital.

* * *

He was maybe halfway to the hospital when the fog finally overtook the city. He kept running and did so until the sound of thundering hoofs seemed to come from all directions. With the buildings and fog, the sound was not traveling normally and he couldn't tell where it was coming from.

As time went on, the sound got louder, and ground started to shake. He also started hearing screams, and these were clearly people.

He then noticed the light coming through the fog. It looked familiar, but he started to notice more and more, and before he knew what was happening a dozen of the Grimm where on him. He reacted on instinct, and blocked the attack of one, and swept at the legs of the other Grimm it was riding.

The Horse Grimm wailed and fell throwing its rider. The others kept on moving, leaving him with the one he'd dismounted.

It stood up and roared so loud Jaune could feel the vibration in his bones. It rasied a glowing weapon, which he now saw was the light he'd spotted as they came.

This thing loomed over him by nearly two feet, and looked like pictures he'd seen in Thor's book, and the Ursa Grimm head looked like a head-dress rather than the creatures actual head, but it still had claws. And where he'd thought a Human face should have been, there were just the red lines found the Grimm bones, but in a black, leathery skin with no facial features, but had some aspect of the form of a human face.

It raised its glowing weapon, which looked vaguely like a sword, but rough and uneven. It roared and attacked him, swing with the level of skill he'd once used. Which was to say not very much, but it was using tools, which was an improvement over most Grimm. And it was bigger and stronger than him.

He tried to block and parry the attacks, but the thing never let up or got tired.

Eventually it hammered his shield hard enough to throw it out of his hand. Next thing Jaune was aware of was a hand that seemed half human, half bear around his neck.

The last thing he could remember thinking was what he'd been told about these things. They took the living and the dead.

Stabbing forward with his sword, the beast cried out in pain. Not the low horn-like call it had been using, but the Shriek he'd come to expect from the Shriekers.

He saw the stomach of the creature glowing like Embers and then it threw him hard into the neighboring ally. He smashed into a wall and fell into dumpster there, and was unconscious in no time.

* * *

Jaune woke up an unknown amount of time later, his head throbbing. It took him a few seconds to realize where he was and why he was here.

He was surrounded by trash, and he felt there was some sort of comparison to be drawn, but he was too sore to appreciate it. He climbed out and rolled onto the ground. After a couple moments of sitting on the ground, he pulled himself to his feet.

His sword and shield were close, and with the fact he could see them, he knew the fog had lifted. Picking up his gear, he tried to remember the last thing he saw.

The Grimm's stomach burning like embers was the strongest memory, but it didn't feel like the last thing he remembered, just the strongest. He looked at his blade and wondered if that was the effects of the silver-steel he and Ruby had added to it, or if it was just a fact about this particular Grimm.

Shaking his head to try and get rid of the cobwebs, he remembered where he was going and why he was in the street.

He took off running to the hospital.

* * *

Jaune didn't know if they'd still be there, or would have left and come back, or maybe needed to be treated themselves, but he was close and knew this was his best chance of finding them, given in his excitement, he'd left he Scroll in the room.

He went to Thor's floor first, but as he did he noticed marks on the wall, claws marks, and some of the windows had been smashed.

But once he was on the floor where Thor was, he noticed a few things.

First was Blake was in the hallway, with Ren rubbing her shoulders. Nora was sitting on a bench, with her head her hands in unusual display of despair.

He walked closer, and saw that Blake had Ruby in a tight hug. All he managed to say was "Hey…"

They all looked at him, and Ruby and Blake broke their embrace, and Ruby's eyes were bloodshot and filled with tears.

She broke away from Blake and hugged him hard enough to almost crack ribs. "Jaune!" He sobbed "It's not fair, he just came back!" she cried hysterically.

He returned the hug but looked around to try and assess the situation. He spied into Thor's room and saw him on the bed, and Yang by his side, holding his hand.

"What happened?"

* * *

One Hour Earlier

The Grimm attack had come too swiftly and so suddenly that no proper defense was in place, certainly none of the planned ones, and even the standard defenses didn't have time to responded, they had been hit that quickly.

Yang only thanked God, whatever god that would hear her, that this hadn't full-scale attack. It had been a raiding party at best, a few hundred of the Grimm. They had come in, attack some of the defenses, and rode off with hundreds of civilians.

What was more, the fear they had induced was almost palpable in the air. Now other Grimm were likely to come, and make things harder.

But Yang was thankful she and her sister had made it through the attack. The Silver-steel in their weapons made a marked difference.

They made their way to the hospital, both out of the desire to complete their original task, and to make sure Thor was okay.

The Hospital had been hit by the raid, but not as bad as some areas, that was likely due to its location on the northern end of the city.

But a few Grimm had made it in, and done some damage.

But, either lucky or unlucky, they had left before long. They had rushed the bridges and demolished the gates before they could be closed and had started just abducting people on the streets or breaking into their homes to take them.

The number of the Grimm that had come was uncertain, as it always was in the mist with these things. But as of now, the estimate was a couple hundred, maybe an even thousand, but nowhere near all of them, even by the account Thor had given, there would be more.

The casualties were not known, but it had left a panic in the air.

But what scared Yang the most was they had left, that was completely atypical for Grimm. They had come in, hit the city, taken an unknown number of people, and left. This had other people scared too, the unknown of what these things were, how smart they were, had the city in near total panic.

The one upside was that she'd finally seen firsthand what this Silver-steel did to Grimm. When she had punched one of the horse Grimm, the area erupted in an incredibly nasty looking burn. It even glowed like hot embers, and the thing feel over in its side in its death throws before expiring.

The wound her punch had made seemed like it had burn a hole roughly the size of a soccer ball into the neck of the Grimm.

The others had similar experiences, this metal was absolutely destructive to the Grimm.

As they approached Thor's room, they saw him talking to his doctor. He spotted them and held up one finger to indicate they should wait.

After a few more minutes the two finished talking and the doctor left.

"So, when are you getting out of here?" Yang said as she walked into the room and kissed him on the cheek.

She felt his hand on her back, and it was…surprisingly tender. Not that he was rough, although he could be, but this felt like a much softer touch than normal.

"Yang." He started, looking at her, then turning to Ruby, "Ruby, both of you should sit down." He gestured to the chairs opposite of his bed.

The sisters exchanged looks and worry was plain on their face, but they did what was suggested.

"Is everything okay?" Ruby said, wringing her hands together in a nervous manner.

Thor sighed, and looked at her, he didn't want to tell her. He didn't want to tell Yang either, but Ruby's childlike nature made it harder for him to tell her things that would hurt her. He'd tried to shield her as much as he could, when he could. Yang did the same, but was much better at judging when it might be beneficial or not.

But there was no hiding this. Better for them to see it coming than for him expire suddenly.

"No way to say this easily." He said looking from one to the other. "This" his pointed to the injury still on his cheek "That girl had something on her blade, when she cut me it got into my body."

"So…Poison?" Ruby asked, clenching her skirt, wringing it.

"Something like that." He decided that knowing the whole story was irrelevant at this point.

"So, what's the news then, are you going to be out of commission for a few weeks or something?" Yang asked.

Thor shook his head "It's terminal Yang, the Doctors can't stop whatever it is, right now this." He pointed to his IV drip "Is keeping it a bay, but it's not going to work forever." He looked at the floor as he said this, the expression on their faces were breaking his heart.

"Wait!" Yang said standing up, and running her hands through her hair. "Just wait, you mean…they think it could be terminal right, like the treatments aren't working?"

Thor shook his head "Yang, it's going to kill me."

"No!" Ruby jumped up, making him jump a bit himself. She ran to his bed and grabbed his arm "It's just…we need to find them a cure, I mean every poison has one right?"

Thor could only think they were taking this as well as he expected. Ruby was looking him in eye, but he looked to see what Yang was doing. She hand her hands on top of her head, fingers laced and was walking back and forth in the room in a very quick and agitated manner.

He turned back to Ruby "No, this is…whatever she had was a weapon meant to kill, no cure."

Ruby's eye's filled with tears, and her grip tightened. He wanted to lie and tell her he was going to be fine, but in the end she would just resent him when he went.

Yang was still pacing, and eventually she stormed out of the room, pulling her scroll out and started dialing someone.

It had to be Ren, Nora or Jaune, she didn't know anyone else in the area other than her Uncle, and he hadn't exactly been reliable this whole time.

Ruby was now hugging him, hard, and he embraced her with his prosthetic, and stroked her hair with his real hand.

* * *

Ruby clutched to Thor as hard as she could. She felt like if she held onto him hard enough, it would somehow keep him here or fix his issues.

She knew that was absolutely ridiculous, that it would never work, but she couldn't help but try and hold him here.

His hand was stroking her hair, but then he gently pushed her away so he could look in her eyes.

"Ruby…little sister." He used his nickname for her, and it had the opposite effect it normally did. Instead of making her happier, it felt like a stab in the heart, reminding her of their bond, and how he was leaving her. Just like her Mom, Pyrrha and Penny. And she hated him in that moment. How could he?

But she knew it wasn't his choice, but she was angry at him. Why couldn't he have guarded himself better? Or avoid the hit? He let this happen to him.

"You've read that book, yes? The one Blake gave me?"

Ruby knuckled her eyes trying to push the tears away, nodding, because she didn't think she could talk right now.

"You know what I believe right?"

She nodded again. The Viking believed in fate and that upon death, if they fell in battle, they'd enter Valhalla.

"The skein of our lives was weaved on the day of our births. Sadness and fear, they are nothing to let into you life. Your fate is fixed, no matter what I did, I would not live a moment longer."

Ruby hated that. She didn't believe in fate or destiny, at least not in the way where it was totally fixed and couldn't be changed.

She knew he was trying to comfort her, but it wasn't working. But he spoke again.

"Sorrow and fear profit a person nothing." He smiled as he said this, and she could tell he believed this completely, his smile was real.

His words did nothing to comfort her, but his smile had eased her heart by the tiniest degree.

She was still crying as she responded "I need to go find Yang." She stood up and left the room with a quick walk.

* * *

Yang hung up her scroll. She'd tried to reach Jaune, but he wasn't answering. Nora and Ren had picked up right away and were on their way over. She was worried about Jaune now, on top of everything else. She didn't know if she could deal with that right now.

She leaned against the wall, bracing it with her arm. This wasn't right, it just wasn't…right. What was killing her was, if she had beaten that girl back on the train, this wouldn't have happened. This was her fault. She'd killed Thor as surely as if she'd shot him.

Tears started to run down her cheeks and she wiped them away and stood up straight taking a deep breath.

She needed to be strong. Her sister needed someone to be. Their dad was on the other side of the world, and their Uncle was completely unreliable right now. Thor was here, but they had no right to ask him to be strong. He was the one who needed it now, more than them.

Footsteps behind her told her that her sister was near. She turned to face her, trying to put on a brave face.

But Ruby's expression told her either she had failed in her attempt, or otherwise it wasn't going work anyway.

She wanted to say something to her, but couldn't think of what to say. Instead she just hugged her sister.

Her embrace was returned and her sister started to sob into her chest.

"It's not fair!" She wailed into her sister's chest.

"I know, it never is." She whispered into her ear. "But we have to put on a brave face for him, right? As hard as this is for us, it's a thousand times harder for him."

Ruby surprised Yang by pushing her back and it startled her to see anger mixed in with her sister's grief "No it's not!" She near yelled "You hear what he said? He's completely okay with it!"

"Ruby…I know he's trying to put on a brave face-"

"Yang!" Ruby's voice was getting louder "Try and talk to him about, he think's it's destiny or something, that he can't avoid it."

Yang knew that Thor was generally a bit fatalistic, but she'd never thought he'd taken his own death so lightly. In fact she didn't think he was. He'd shown back at Beacon he tried constantly to protect Ruby.

But now it had backfired, and she was now dealing with anger mixed in with her grief.

"I'm gonna talk to him." She said walking away from her sister, but giving her a reassuring rub on the shoulder.

She didn't want to leave her sister alone, but she wanted to talk to Thor about what he said.

"Yang?" She heard a voice that wasn't Ruby off to her left. She turned to see Blake, looking more haggard than ever, but overall unhurt.

They had gotten separated during the raid, and frankly she'd half-expected her partner to of bolted again.

"You still here?" She said coldly, and regretted it almost immediately.

Blake looked hurt by this comment, but didn't say anything " I deserve that, after leaving all of you."

"No, Blake, I'm sorry, it's just…" she trailed off, not know how to deliver this news. She felt like it wasn't exactly her place to do so, but wanted to vent it some way "It's Thor, he's…sick. The Doctors don't think he's gonna…make it." She finished weakly.

Blake's eye's widened at this, he'd seemed fine when she saw him the other day. "How…what…what's the…" she stumbled over her words, not sure how to ask.

"When he fought Torchwicks assassin, she poisoned him."

All the color ran out of Blake's face. That could have been her, but Thor had ended the fight before it could happen.

Thor had been the immediate target, but the initial attack could have been for her just as easily.

'This was her fault' was all she could think.

* * *

Present Time

Jaune felt like the bottom had dropped out of his stomach. Thor was the biggest, strongest, toughest person he knew. It didn't seem real that he'd be dying from something like this. It didn't seem right, especially after what he'd read about his people.

Death in battle, that seemed right for him. Jaune didn't want him to die, but this seemed such a sick way for him to go. It wasn't going to be quick either, it would drag out for days, maybe even weeks.

He looked into Thor's room and he seemed fine, more or less. Maybe he was a little pale, but he was in a hospital. Maybe the doctors had made a mistake.

That hope flared in his chest before he crushed it himself. They wouldn't have told Thor this unless they were reasonably sure. But still…it was possible, right?

* * *

Jaune had spoken to the doctors, and while unwilling to divulge any details, they simply reassured him they weren't wrong.

This was terrible, and he wasn't sure how much he could take. It just seem to keep losing, and losing. With the impending attack of the Grimm, he wasn't sure he'd ever felt this beaten down in his life.

He still was grieving for Pyrrha, and add to it all this new stress. He felt like he was being pulled in several directions at once. Ruby was in emotional tatters, and Yang was at the hospital most of the time.

Blake had come back, and that was one of the few good things to happen in the past few days. But she was with Yang more often than not.

The city was in turmoil, anyone who could afford to do so was fleeing to Atlas or Vacuo. But Mistral was the biggest and most populated Kingdom, and the vast majority of its population was unable to afford the move.

But on the plus side, the city had finally managed a plan of action. All but one of the bridges to the city had been demolished, leaving one point of entry to the city. This one Bridge was barricaded with most of the Silver-steel at the far end.

There wasn't enough to make a true wall the would be high enough to keep the Grimm out, but a series of steel bars of varying length were tipped with the metal, forming a wall of spears the stretched the area of the coverage into a broader and taller defense. Barbed and razor wire made the metal were run between the spears as well to keep the gaps from being exploited.

A another series of spears and wire were placed at the opposite end of the bridge closer to the city itself, if the first failed.

One last defense of explosive were placed along the bridge, to blow it apart if the bridge was overrun.

Jaune didn't like the idea of that, because if it came to that, it would mean that most people were trapped.

The passes through the mountain were narrow, and frankly not all that safe with the bandit activity being as high as it was.

But now at least they had some level of a defense, and at the very least the Grimm would bunch up in one spot to make them easier to deal with.

* * *

Blake sat across from Yang and Thor as Yang sat next to him as he slept. He had taken a sudden turn for the worst. The treatment the Doctors had been giving him had stopped working as well. They were pumping more and more of it into him, but he was still sliding away.

His skin was pale now, and while he was always fair skinned, now he looked sicklier than before. His eyes had dark shadows around them and his face was looking more and more hollow.

She didn't say anything to Yang, she just wrote in her notes.

"What are you writing?" Yang asked seemingly out of nowhere.

Blake looked up at her partner, and looked a bit confused before responding "I'm writing about the Grimm who attacked. They aren't like anything I've ever seen, I'm trying to…document them."

"What have you got so far?" Yang asked, in a tone that told Blake she was just looking for a distraction, but she'd help her any way she could.

"Well, the first form, the small ones, I've decided to go with your and Thor's name, 'Mist Mauraders', and once they get to their bigger size, once they go underground, I've labeled them as 'Shriekers'."

"Okay." Yang said, her tone not really interested, these were thing she already sort of knew.

Blake sighed and continued "But the third form, the one produced by the full-grown Shriekers, I took the name form that book on Thor's people, I've decided to call the 'Wendo'." She said pronouncing the "W" as a "V".

Yang didn't seem all that interested, so Blake decided to move onto the speculations she'd formed.

"I think I know why they take people alive." She said, looking at her own notes.

That got Yang's attention "Why?"

"It's just speculation, but I think it has to do, in part at least, to what Grimm really feed on." She said, pulling a page of notes out. "Grimm don't eat their victims, but rather it's believed they feed on negative emotions brought about by there attack. By capturing people and feeding them living to their 'mother', they produce much more fear and despair than just a normal attack."

Yang looked skeptical at this and asked "You really think they're that smart?"

"Maybe." Blake said "But they also have human or Faunus assistance, they might be controlled or directed in these activities."

Yang looked concerned about this, but asked her next question regardless "But what about the feeding of the them and the Grimm to the big worms?"

That Blake had many idea's on, but decided to stick with the one she thought was most likely. "I believe they somehow merge part of the person with the Grimm being eaten. That's how they make these smarter Grimm, these 'Wendo', because being control or not, they are much smarter than other Grimm of similar age. They display simple reasoning skills and tool use when only a few days old."

"How so?" Yang asked, now interested.

"They use primitive weapons ,but when they attack the other day, they attack defensive structure, energy souse and control panels, and actively disabled things that could slow them down or hurt them." Blake responded.

Yang looked pensive for a moment, and didn't respond.

"You really think they're that smart?" she finally asked.

"Yes I do."

They sat in silence for a bit before yang asked her final question. "But why do they eat the dead?"

Blake didn't have a real answerd for than, other than one "I belive it's to scare the victims they take, to create even more fear."

* * *

Jaune was worried about Ruby. She hadn't been to the hospital since the day she'd found out about Thor's condition. That he understood, even if he didn't think it was a good idea.

But she was just laying around her room, not doing anything at all. She wasn't even bathing or changing her clothes. She was starting get dirty and smell pretty bad, granted he'd never tell her that.

He just sat with her most days, not saying anything as they watched whatever was on, while not really watching it.

Today she was as despondent as ever, not saying more than a few words.

Eventually the silence was broken with her voice "It's not fair Jaune, it's not right."

He'd heard this before from her, and while he agreed with it, he had run out of things to say in response other than "I know."

"It's scary too." She added.

Jaune looked at her, this was new for her to say, even if he agreed "How so?"

"Life is shorter than I thought, or really realized. Three of my friends, all only a little older than me, dying. My mom, even though she was really young." She mumbled.

"Yeah, I know." Jaune couldn't help but think of his own personal issues on the matter.

In his own thoughts, he hadn't noticed Ruby had moved next to him. When he noticed her, he jumped in surprise.

"Ruby!" He gasped, holding his chest. "What is it?" he asked looking her in face, the face full of sorrow, but also something he didn't quite recognize.

Before he knew what was going on Ruby closed the distance and kissed him full on the lips.

He was shocked at this, in part because it reminded him of Pyrrha's kiss. Her lips were soft just like her's, and the passion was there.

But this was very different in other ways. For one, Ruby hadn't been washing herself for a days now, and her smell was rather unpleasant, but that wasn't as alarming as something else.

This felt right, like he'd been waiting for it for some time.

He pushed her off gently, and saw he face was glowing red.

All he could think was the act had to take a lot of courage. But he was feeling incredibly conflicted, between how right it felt, and how guilty it made him feel.

"Ruby…" He began but didn't know how to finish, so he just stopped talking.

Her eye's went wide, and before he could say anything else, he vanished from the room and cloud of petals.

"Damn it." Was all he muttered as he went to look for her.

* * *

It had started to rain as Ruby walked the streets. She couldn't believe she'd done that, let alone done it when she hadn't bathed for three or four days. She was beyond embarrassed, which was another feeling to add to her emotional overload right now.

She found herself at the docks. She watched as the ships came and went into the air, most people leaving, or those who could afford to anyway.

This sight made her angry. The people feeling were only thinking of themselves. They not only thought the city wasn't safe, but the fact they were leaving was causing more panic.

Grimm, the normal types anyway, were coming more often near the city. The standard defense were handling them alright, but it was depleting resources that could be used to handle the larger threat.

She idly watch a Bullhead land, and was surprised to see someone unloading gear, rather than loading in. In city where everyone was leaving, the sight of someone coming was odd to say the lease.

Then she saw the telltale white hair of the owner, and her heart soared for the first time in days.

She was running across the landing pad before she even know what was happening.

* * *

Weiss didn't care much for the rain, but she'd dealt with worse. She picked up her bag and started to make her way to the terminal.

Next thing she knew she was on the ground, with something crushing her rib cage.

For a moment, she thought she was being attacked, but then she heard the voice.

"Weiss, oh my god, I am so glad to see you!"

Ruby, of course. She hadn't been in the city five minutes and her old partner had found her. While she'd never say it out loud, her heart soared at this, seeing part of her old team again.

"Ruby! Get off me!" she shouted, and her partner obliged and let her stand up. She got a good look at Ruby now, and overall, she looked more or less the same, she was soaking wet from the rain, but she still looked like Ruby. "So, tell me what you've been up to." She said trying to sound as nonchalant as she could.

What she didn't expect was the whole story of what had happened since they had been separated. Her journey, Yang and Blake's stories, and Thor's survival of the fall.

But once she got to the part about Thor, she shut up and Weiss could tell clear as say something was wrong.

"Ruby…what's wrong?" She asked, in a cautious tone. Frankly she was happy to hear Thor was alive and well, as annoying as he could be at time, she did like him, and was happy she hadn't lost another friend.

"He's sick Weiss, and the Doctors don't know what it is really…" Ruby said, trailing off, her tone conveying all the sadness she clearly felt. "He's not doing well, I don't think…" She could bring herself to say it.

"Oh…" was all Weiss could say. Hearing one of her friends was alive, after thinking he was dead, then finding out he was dying, it made her head spine. She shook her head to trying clear her thoughts.

"Weiss." Ruby started, her tone slightly lighter than before "You don't think your family might…be able to heal him?" She asked in a tone that made it clear she didn't want to hope for something, but was hoping anyway. "I mean you're from the richest family in the most advanced Kingdom in the world, if anyone could help him-"

"Ruby" Weiss cut her off "I won't say it's impossible, but Atlas has closed off its borders, if we could get him there, maybe, but the effort…it would be hard." Weiss said, not telling Ruby that she had just fled the Kingdom and didn't want to go back. Not that that mattered, if she could save Thor's life, she'd go back instantly. But she didn't even know what was wrong with him, there was no guarantee there was anything for him there.

Then there was the fact the trip could kill him outright, depending on how sick he was. That she needed to see for herself, if for no other reason than to apologize to him for how she'd been a brat to him while at school, and make amends before it was too late.

"Can we go see him?"

* * *

Ruby felt a bit taken aback by the request. She hadn't been to see Thor since the day she found out how sick he was. But if Weiss could help him, or get him help, she'd go back in a heartbeat.

"Yeah, let's go now!" she said a more excited tone than she'd been using in the past few days. Hope swelled in her chest as she pulled her partner behind her, not even realizing she was using her semblance.

"Ruby! Stop!" She could hear Weiss yelling behind her, and realizing she'd acted a bit rashly, she stopped suddenly. Ruby, ready for the sudden stop, stayed on her feet, Weiss however was thrown to the ground, landing in a puddle of mud and water.

"Oh, my god, Weiss I 'm so sorry!" She started saying while she helped her friend to her feet. A real fine way to great her after so much time apart.

"Ruby…it's fine." Weiss said standing up and wiping as much mud off herself as she could "I just need to go back for my bag first." She said as she headed back to the port.

Ruby was a bit taken aback by Weiss's relaxed reaction. Had this happened while they were at school, she would have been certain of a chewing out from her friend.

All she could think of was whatever she had gone through had mellowed her out quite a bit.

* * *

Weiss didn't know someone could look so close to death and still be alive.

Some of her shock, she knew, had to come from the injuries he'd gotten during the fall of Beacon. The scars and missing body parts looked bad. But his pale color and his waxy skin, and the bruising around his eye's, he almost looked like a corpse.

Yang sat next to him holding his hand, stroking his arm gently.

He wasn't even awake, but she didn't think he needed to be to tell her how he was feeling.

"So, you think you can get him help?" She heard Ruby muter in her ear.

The answer was short and simple, no. He was on deaths door, and the time it would take to get him to Atlas or get help her from Atlas, she didn't think he'd last that long. Even then, she didn't know if there was anything in Atlas that could help him.

But she said instead "I'm not sure." She couldn't help but try and shield her friend.

"Ruby?" a raspy voice called out, making Weiss jump before she realized it was Thor. His eye' were open and almost completely red with broken blood vessels.

"Yes?" Ruby said hesitantly, stepping forward, clearly not wanting to get a good look at him in this condition.

"The book…could you bring it to me?" he croaked out.

"Umm..yeah. What did you need it for?"

"I to want to see if final rites are in it." He said in voice that seemed like it hadn't been used in years.

Weiss looked at Ruby and saw her tearing up, and she was leaving the room.

Looking at Yang for what she should do, wanting to go after her partner. Yang nodded and said "go", and with that went after Ruby.

* * *

Ruby felt her hope dying in her chest. He'd given up, and was ready for it to end. She'd get him the book, she even knew what he was talking about. She thought everyone on her team did after spending some much time reading the book. Only Weiss didn't, and that was going to change soon enough.

"Ruby slow down!" Weiss's voice called from behind her.

"I'm just getting the book Weiss." Her voice telling her partner that she was trying to be nonchalant, but failing.

"Ruby." Weiss's hand grabbed her shoulder and turned her around. "You can't run from this!" She scolded her "He' doesn't have much time left, and if you just avoid him…you're going to regret not spending what time you have with him left."

Ruby didn't respond at first but just bit her bottom lip. "I know, it's just, I'm scared of losing another friend." She eventually muttered.

"I know, but you have to face reality." Weiss muttered "It's not going to be easy, but a little discomfort now will save you a lifetime of regret."

* * *

As they neared the room Ruby was staying in Weiss thought, or hoped she'd made an impact. She didn't seem as agitated as before, if a little somber.

As Ruby opened the door to the room, and Weiss was greeted with the sight of someone she supposed she shouldn't be surprised to see.

Jaune was sitting on the bed as they came in and stood up as they entered.

"Ruby I-"He started but caught sight of Weiss, and Weiss felt her blood chill a bit at this. She hadn't exactly been the nicest person to him at school. But all he said was "Hey Weiss, could you give us a minute?"

She was a bit surprised to be dismissed by the boy who had pinned over her, but the air was thick with a tension she couldn't place and knew now was a better time to back off.

She stepped out of the room, but left the door open a crack. She told herself it was to make she if anything happened, she could step in. But she knew it was just her curiosity, wanting to know more about her friends after being separated from them for so long.

What she heard didn't make a whole lot of sense though, because Jaune and Ruby were talking in way that made her think whatever it had made them uncomfortable saying it out loud, just saying things like "You know what." Or "That thing.", Her problem was she didn't have any context for these terms.

That was until Jaune said "I think…maybe…I like you too? You know in the same way?"

That got Weiss curious enough to look in the crack, and was just in time to see her two friends close in and kiss.

She didn't keep looking , but instead turned away as quick as she could.

She felt a very weird and very disturbing feeling in her stomach, which she couldn't quite place. All she knew was she had a sudden urge to interrupt them without barging in.

So instead she knocked "Can you two hurry up with whatever it is you're doing and grab the book?" She didn't quite yell, but said in an elevated tone.

There was some shuffling and mutters inside the room and soon both Ruby and Jaune came out, both with a bit of color in their cheeks and Ruby holding familiar book.

"Can I see that?" Weiss asked, not wanting to address them on what she'd seen, though they didn't know she'd seen.

"Umm, yeah, here." Ruby said handing the book to Weiss. "I've marked the page Thor was talking about, the one with what he wants read."

Weiss read it, and it wasn't very long, it read more like a short poem than a traditional last rite.

But this book made her wonder about something she hadn't thought of since her last Semester at school. "Thor's father…you…haven't found him, have you?"

Ruby shook her head, and Weiss felt a bit of disappointment at that. She'd had another of those dreams while she was at home, and was hoping that maybe the man who could interpret them was near. With his son on deaths door, she'd have thought he might have been.

The dream was as vivid as the last one she had, but it was a completely different type. This time she'd dreamt of a giant word or snake made completely of fire looming over her, and as much as she attacked it, the fire still burned.

She pushed the idea to the back of her head, and said "Let's get back to the hospital, Thor will want this." She said, turning to leave, and thought she saw Jaune and Ruby joined hands, and she felt her heart skip a beat.

* * *

When they arrived at the hospital, Ruby noticed everyone in the city who knew Thor was there, even her Uncle, who looked soberer than she'd seen him in days.

They were all around Thor's bed, and she felt a sudden sense of dread come over her. Was this it?

"Ruby." Qrow said to her, putting a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry for the last few days, it's just…something happened." He said looking at the floor, with what could only be described as shame "I lost someone I was supposed to look after, but forgot about everyone else I needed to look after." He looked at her directly now. "I'm here for you now…if you need anything."

Ruby didn't answer her Uncle, but nodded and moved past him, taking the book to Thor.

"Thor, I've got the book…and the last rites you wanted." Her voice was soft, almost completely silent.

"Good little sister." He croaked out. "Now, if you could-"He was cut off by a blaring horn. It was the siren to call all hunters to their defensive positions. "Go." Was all Thor said, as he closed the book.

"But!" Ruby cried out. She had just gotten here, and had steeled herself for what was to come, to spend time with him, and now this?

"Don't worry, my rites will come before I go." He said. "Now go."

Everyone else was on their feet, watching them.

Ruby knew she had to go, and while it killed her to leave him like this, she knew if the Grimm got past the city defenses, it was all over.

She stood up, and hugged him, said goodbye and started towards the door.

Everyone else said their goodbyes and started to head out until only Yang remained.

* * *

Yang looked at Thor in his bed, and her heart was breaking. She did not want to leave him, because she was sure he didn't have long now.

"Go." He said, looking at her "They'll need you, the Wendo won't be so easily defeated as other Grimm."

She knew he was right, that every single person would be needed here. If they got past the first defense, and she was certain they could, those bastards were so damned smart, they'd have to hold them at the city gates.

But he was slipping away, he was holding on by his fingernails at this point.

But what else could be said that hadn't been said, other than the one thing they'd told each other countless times already?

She walked over to his bedside and said it anyway "I love you."

With this she kissed him, not passionately, but softly, gently and with love.

He returned what he could with his energy, and said "I love you too, now go and protect the city."

Her eyes fogged up at this, and she knuckled the tears away. "Okay, but…you better be here when I get back!" She said in completely false bravado and jogged out of the room to catch up to her friends.

She left in such a hurry she didn't hear his response "I know I won't be."

* * *

The defensive wall on the City end of the bridge was covered with the spear like defenses and barbed wire of the opposite side. But this one had added gun mountings and places for hunters and soldiers to fire at the enemy.

Ruby took her place at one of the higher points, where she could snipe the enemy if they made it past the first defense.

The engineers who had built these fences said there was no change of that. This new metal would repel lesser Grimm and even the stronger ones would be torn apart by the wire or impaled by the spears.

Ruby wasn't so sure, but the fog had rolled in from the hills and she spotted seven giants likes of light coming down from the mountain. Thor had told them these were the Wendo riding in formation, and each line was one group.

Ruby looked away from the massive number of Grimm to look at the bridge they were guarding. It was huge, incredibly wide, and Ruby didn't know why this one was chosen to keep. The other bridges were smaller and more easily defended. Ren proposed the City council didn't want to have to try and fix the largest one once the fight was over.

Ruby didn't know about that, but she still felt it was bad decision for whatever reason.

"You ready?" Yangs voice came in from behind her.

"No." was all she could say at first. "I wish Thor was with us."

" I know but-" The sound of explosions for the other end of the bridge stopped her sister from responding.

Another series of popping noises that could only be either gunfire or explosion soon drew all the hunters and soldiers on the bridges attention.

"What the hell is happening!" One of the other hunters shouted.

Another pulled out a pair of what looked like binoculars, but Ruby knew they were more advanced than that, with multiple visions modes, and looked.

"It's the White Fang!" He called "They're demolishing the first line of defense!"

A chorus of voices started talking and shouting.

But all Ruby could think of was how they hadn't seen this coming. Using people who the metal had no effect on to open it up. It was now clearly a glaring flaw in the plan for defense.

She doubted they'd be able to completely destroy it in a such a short amount of time, but knew they didn't have to, just open up enough of an area for the Wendo to charge through.

He heart began to sink as the light started to form in the mist that had gathered at the far end of the bridge.

He heart began to sink at this, soon they'd be hit with the full force of the combined Grimm and White Fang.

But then she heard the grinding of metal behind her. For a moment she wondered what it was, before turning to see Thor dragging his ax behind him, the blade cutting shallow grooves into the-the concrete.

Before she could reconcile what she was seeing, it started to rain.

She made to run to him, but a strong grip on her shoulder stopped her.

She looked to see Yang, and even in the rain, she thought she could see her sisters tears. "Ruby, let him go, it's not going to matter in the end. This is better for him than in his bed."

Ruby wanted to argue with her sister, but knew she was right. This was how'd he want to leave this world.

Turning back to Thor and his limped passed the barricade to stand in the front, he tripped once, and braced himself on a spear for a moment before standing up and moving on into the front line.

* * *

Jaune watch as Thor walked like a half-dead man into the front line. He looked to all his friends, who were all watching him. Ren and Nora next to him, Yang and Ruby just behind Thor, and Weiss and Blake off to Thor's right. All he could think was "what is he doing?"

Then he heard Thor speak the first line, just as the light of Wendo became viable and the sound of the hooves of their mounts closes in.

"Lo there do I see my father." Jaune recognized this as the first line of the final death rites he wanted read.

The thundering of the hooves grew louder and Thor continued, but now Jaune and Nora joined in.

"Lo there do I see my mother and my sisters" they said then Ren joined in as they all said "and my brothers."

Now the bridge was shaking with the coming threat, but they all continued.

Now Yang and Ruby joined in, catching on as they all said in unison "Lo there do I see the line of my people, back to the beginning."

The lights of the Grim weapons started to shine through the mist, and now Blake and Weiss joined in as all eight of them near shouted "Lo, they do call me, they bid me take my place among them."

Now the Wendo started to appear as shadows in the mist, but they continued with the Thor's rite's none the less.

"in the halls of Valhalla!" They all near yelled as the Wendo started to make their own cry, as if in terrible counter to the Viking prayer.

"Where the brave!" Jaune felt himself shouting particularly loudly at this part to try and drown out the sounds of the enemy.

"May Live!" He heard Yang shout in defiance.

"Forever!" Ruby shouted at the top of voice, and with the that, Thor shouted a battle cry, and the gun fire rang out as the Enemy came into range of the hunters.

* * *

 **AN:Well, Read and Review and tell me what you think.**


	13. Worthy

**AN: Okay, here's another Chapter.**

 **I'd like to thank Funkyshnelpu jr, DragFire, Killkill123100, LightningStrife, and Rusted Thunder for your reviews.**

 **Also, the comments on moving this to the Crossover section. Frankly, I think you are right. I probably will sometime in the near future, but I want to edit some of chapters, Author's notes mostly, to make it fit better. For now, it's going to say here, but it will go over there probably within the next month.**

 **This chapter or the next is probably going to be the last chapter posted in this section. After this, it will be in the Cross-over section with the Thor film.**

 **Also, I've placed a reference to the original Thor Comic run in this chapter. I'm wondering if anyone can spot it.**

 **Still looking for Beta, if anyone is interested.**

 **Anyway, read and review.**

* * *

Worthy

* * *

The Wendo came crashing into the defensive line. Ruby only had time to watch Thor bisect a rider and it's mount in one swing of his ax before she had to start firing.

Unlike the earlier attack on the far bridge, the Wend charged into the silver-steel defense with no concern for themselves. They implied themselves and their mounts on the spears and tangled themselves in the wire.

They screamed as they burned and died and Ruby couldn't help but wonder why they were doing it. Then a rider rode its mount over the body of a dying Wendo and over the defense and lept at her.

She managed to hit it with a sniper round, with enough for to stop in mid-air, and it fell into the razor wire below and started to die.

Hunters and soldiers were firing on the mass of black Grimm and for a moment, Ruby was feeling like they might actually hold them here, they just ran into the crossfire and the melee fighters were killing most that got near the actual defenses.

But then something whizzed by her ear, and stuck one other soldiers off to her right.

She turned to see a spear of Grimm bone protruding from the soldiers neck as he fell to the ground, twitching and coughing up blood.

She wanted to help him, but soon more and more of the spears started flying towards the defensive line and were killing the weaker soldiers, taking out the gun emplacements.

The howl of a Wendo drew her attention back to her own emplacement, and a particularly big one looming over her.

Shifting to her scythe, she cut it across the stomach, leaving a burning gash and the Grimm fell over, convulsed on the ground, and died.

Now more and more were making it over the first line of defense, and more hunters were forced into melee with them.

But the hunters and huntresses were all season warriors. While they may not of all had the silver-steel to aid them, the Wendo's clumsy attacks were being easily countered and repelled.

That was when she noticed then bodies on the Wendo on the defenses were quickly vanishing and then the other's behind them were stalled in going over the line.

She ran back to her previous post and started firing at every Grimm she could see, concentrating on the area where she'd last seen Thor. He was lost in the mass of black and she wanted to help him any way she could.

Soon enough she caught a glimpse of him, and he looked more alive than he had in days. He was cutting the Wendo down left, right and center at a speed she would of thought was impossible for him in his condition.

But then one of the Grimm struck him on his back, making him howl in pain before he turned and cut it in half with his ax.

Working her gun like a manic she tried to clear as much of the area around him as possible, even though she knew it wouldn't matter. By the end of this battle, he'd be gone, one way or another.

But she still fought against that thought. She'd keep him here as long as she could, anyway she could.

But as she fired at the Grimm something else came out of the mist, something distinctly made by man.

An RPG hit the defensive line and blew apart a large portion of the spears and wire. IT didn't open a hole in the line, but it had done its damage.

Looking into the fog she saw the source of the attack. White Fang soldiers were coming into with the Grimm now. More were firing rockets at the line, destroying spears and throwing wire out of the way.

Without thinking, Ruby took aim at the Faunus, and fire her first shot with the intent to kill at another person.

* * *

Yang pummeled her way through the Grimm, her shells not being nearly as effective as her fists in this regard. Grimm after Grimm fell to her, but a series of explosion off to her right drew her attention way.

The defensive line was being destroyed by rocket fire. It only took her a moment to spot the White Fang members trying to open the line.

Eye's flashing red, she charged them, killing Grimm as she went.

As she got up on them, she could tell hadn't even noticed her approach in the chaos of the battle.

She blasted two before the third could even attack, and even his responses was sloppy. She just grabbed him by his shirt and tossed him over the edge of the bridge.

As she turned to return the fight, something whizzed past her head, and she barely managed to roll out of the way.

The roll was one smooth action and she was on her feet neat instantly.

The person she was facing made her blood run cold. "Adam." Was all she said.

"I see you're back on your feet." He said, holding his sword at his side.

He looked bad, like he'd been homeless for months. He was unshaven and his clothes were in tatters and filthy.

Despite the battle around them, the charging Wendo ignored them.

"You look bad." Was all she could think to say, but it was true.

"Whatever you say, but I'm gonna take that other arm before I take your head off." He said and charged her.

Yang had learned her lesson last time, and waited for him to get close, and slipped the slice and delivered a strong punch to Adams ribs.

The White Fang leader had been caught off guard, and was sent staggering a few feet.

His mask hide most of his face, but Yang could tell she'd caught him by surprise, he'd expected to beat her in one strike like last time.

Well, she wasn't sure she could beat him one on one, that hadn't been the plan with Thor at all. But here she was and Thor wasn't in a place to help. She'd do what she could, and try to take this guy down herself.

And if she didn't, well Thor made Valhalla sound like a pretty good afterlife.

* * *

Jaune sliced a Wendo horse's legs out from under it and sent the rider to the ground where Nora crushed its head with her hammer.

Ren was cutting the legs out from under more of the Grimm, setting them up for Nora to attack. Some she crushed, other's she sent flying over the edge of the bridge, but she was fighting like a woman possessed.

She's been charged wit hall the lightning dust they had, and was throwing these Grimm around like they were made of paper.

"Come on!" Jaune shouted, raising his sword to lead them further into the fight. Firearms were not working well, these things were too tough, smaller round didn't affect them enough to slow them down and they had an incredibly strong vitality that even larger rounds didn't kill them outright.

They charged into the mass, killing as they went. They had to push them off the line, it was starting to be blown apart, and it had to be preserved at least until the White Fang were dealt with.

But more hunters were pushing off the line, cutting through the Grimm, and eventually, they managed to clear the area in front of the defensive line, up to where Thor was.

Jaune caught sight of his friend throwing his ax, and as it tumbled end over end, it cut dozens of Grimm to pieces, yet the horde still came.

The ax boomeranged back, but more Grimm and their mounts. But still they kept coming, now with White Fang foot soldiers mixed in, firing at the hunters and few soldiers left.

"Die!" He heard Thor shout and a huge bolt of lightning came crashing down into his ax and raced out into the coming horde.

It only traveled outward from Thor and fried dozens of Grimm and White Fang.

Thor seemed to go a bit limp after this, as he stabbed his ax into the ground and let his prosthetic arm hang limply at his side.

The attack made a break in the Wendo onslaught, but soon more where coming.

Jaune thought he might have seen Thor brace himself on his ax and wrap his real arm around the neck of one of the horse Grimm and throw it to ground before he had to start fighting again.

* * *

Yang was a bit frustrated the lighting, that must have come from Thor, hadn't taken Adam down. Instead he blocked it with his sword and continued to fight her.

He's managed to cut her a few times, but she'd gotten him good a few times. He was bruised and limping, and was clearly getting agitated.

However this went, Yang couldn't help but feel a great sense of achievement at this.

* * *

Blake was now seeing where Thor had been right in telling her that her attacks lacked force and power. These Wendo were tougher than she had thought and her pistol didn't have any effect on them and she was forced to try and cut them down.

Unlike her friends though, she didn't have any silver-steel on her blades. She was chipping away at one particularly big Grimm at the moment, but it wasn't going down.

Had this been a purely one on one fight, she wouldn't be concerned, but the chaos around them made trying to take the thing down much, much harder.

She spotted Weiss out of the corner of her eye and saw she had apparently mastered her summoning ability in her glyphs. A large knight was cutting down Wendo after Wendo while Weiss herself used a mixture of her dust and semblance to kill more.

Blake couldn't help but wish she could do that now, her friends were killing these things with no great difficulty, and here she was trying her damnedest to kill one.

If she made it out of this, she'd take Thor's advice more seriously and make a heavier hitting weapon.

* * *

Weiss had never been so scared in her life. She's seen combat before, but this was a whole other monster.

She was watching as normal soldiers were impaled and trampled under the hooves of the attackers.

One man had a spear of bone put right through the center of his head and fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

She was feeling sick but kept on going. There were too many things she needed to do. Save her family name, right the wrong of her father, and get these feelings she'd been having since she'd seen Ruby kiss Jaune off her chest.

But these Wendo, as they were named, were terrifying. They were tougher than normal Grimm, but the scariest part was their apparent intelligence. They attacked gun emplacements, came up with plans to go around the defenses, and used tools.

She had never wanted her sister so badly in her life.

But apart from that, her thoughts were of the Thor's prayer. The lines about his father, mother and brothers made her sick to her stomach. Not for him, but her.

She found herself wanting to see her Father and Brother one more time, to tell them that despite how much she hated them at times, she still loved them. To see her mother and try and get through to her.

She wanted to see her family, and even if they were terrible most of the time, wanted to make sure they knew she loved them.

She hated some them, but still loved them. She never understood this duality in her feelings, loving and hating a person at the same time.

But as another Grimm charged her, she pushed these thoughts to the back of her mind, to deal with them later.

* * *

Ruby thought the battle was going as well as could be expected, better even. They had pushed the Wendo off the line and close to the center of the bridge. The White Fang solider who had been trying to destroy the line were dealt with. She'd taken a few out, and she saw her sister tackle the rest.

But she spied into the mist and saw the ling of light that marked the Wendo's forces still extended into the hills. Meaning thousands more remained.

She wished they had air support, but not pilot would fight in this fog. It wasn't safe for them or their allies.

She was feeling a bit tired and her hope was starting to fade. They would be overrun eventually. They would tire out and the Wendo would either take them to feed to their mother. The dead would be eaten by the Wendo themselves and the city would fall.

She found herself praying internally as she fought, to Odin. She'd never been particularly religious, but Thor's god seemed as good as any at this point. She asked him to see them through this, and failing that, allow them to pass into Valhalla.

She didn't even know if she even believed in him, but she believed in Thor, and Thor believed in him, and that was good enough for her.

* * *

Thor felt like his blood was on fire as it pumped through him. He eyes felt swollen and his limbs heavy.

His body was covered in cuts and full of the spears of the Wendo. He was going to go soon, and he wanted to take as many of these Grimm with him as he could.

But he knew that wasn't going to stop them. He needed to do something more to save the city and his friends.

As he fought, he saw in the midst of the Wendo, a lone figure riding at his leisure. It was the man he'd seen at the same, the large man with the beard, the leader, he was sure.

All he could think in that moment was to kill this man, to take him down might break the army of Grimm, or at least ride them of their head.

But he was surrounded by Grimm, and it wouldn't be easy to get to him.

But as he thought this, Thor spotted something on the edge of the bridge a few hundred feet in front of him.

The explosives to take down the bridge. He could trigger them with his lighting, and take the leader out and kill dozens or maybe hundreds of these Grimm in one attack.

Roaring he called the lightning to his ax and with the last of his strength, jumped over the advancing line of Grimm towards there leader.

* * *

They all saw Thor fly over the enemy towards some unknown target, the lightning trailing from his ax.

In the moment they may have been forgiven for thinking he was the god of Thunder.

* * *

The man caught his ax in his hand, which he could now see were armored in gauntlets. He sneered at him and shunted him away.

Thor landed hard on the ground, and the man raised another weapon and tried to strike him with it. At first, he thought it was a sword, but once it struck he could feel it was blunt.

In the mist, he could see it was a…cane? And not just any cane, but the one Ozpin had strolled around with. What was this man doing with it?

He struck him again with the cane, and he felt, rather instead of pain, a surge of energy. An energy he hadn't felt in some time.

Divine power came from that cane. Some god had left their mark on it, and it was giving him energy.

No enough to save his life, but maybe he could save his friends.

He felt his lighting course through his body, and he called down the largest bolt he could, to detonate the explosives and kill as many enemies as possible.

* * *

Yang hadn't managed to avoid another slash, this one cutting her across the bridge of her nose. But the sudden crack of thunder that put both her and Adam on the ground.

The bolt of lighting was bigger than any she'd ever seen, and soon the bridge shook with explosions further up the bridge.

"He didn't…" was all she could think as Adam broke off and fled.

She looked around for a moment to see if he had tried to flank her, but he was nowhere to be seen.

She ran towards the explosion and killed whatever Wendo she could find on the way,

* * *

Ruby killed the last of the Wendo in front on her and ran to the area where the lighting had struck.

Where a section of the bridge had once been, a hole fifty feet wide in the bridge was smoking at the edges.

On the other side, she spotted the Wendo and a few White Fang running from the gap, back into the mist.

"Thor…" she muttered and feel to her knees, tears running down her cheek, and she covered her face.

She heard footsteps around her as hunter, huntresses and soldier ran to the massive gap in the bridge.

She felt a hand on her shoulder, she didn't know if it was Jaune, Yang or Weiss, but human contact was incredibly relieving. But she'd failed him, she wanted to… had tried to…save him. But in the end, he'd died to save them.

She'd failed him, and she didn't think she'd ever get over it.

* * *

Yang didn't want to think it had happened. But she couldn't deny it, Thor had blown himself and the Grimm to pieces to stop there advance.

She knew they were on the back heel, even if they had pushed them back, they kept coming. The rain helped hide her tears, but she didn't think she'd have cared even in the light of a clear day.

She hadn't ever experienced such a personal loss in her life since Summer had died. But this was different, not worse or better, just different.

She'd loved him, in a romantic way she didn't even know was possible. But it was there, and now he wasn't.

She'd have spent the rest of life with him if she could have. Had a family, even settled down, and that was something she had never even considered before him.

She ran he forearm over her eyes to wipe her tears away.

* * *

Jaune didn't know what it felt like to lose faith in a religious sense. But he thought this was as close as he had ever come.

Thor had in many ways seemed almost like a god, even on deaths door, he didn't let it affect him and fought on, like the Thor in the book.

But now he was gone, what would they do?

He thought he heard boom off in the distance, but ignored it as he looked into the mist below the bridge.

But as he did he heard a familiar shriek that made a shiver run down his spine.

Looking to the other side of the bridge, she saw a few lights he knew now where the Wendo's weapons.

But as they came close to the edge of the gap, he saw they were riding, not on the horse Grimm, but the heads of fully grown Shreikers.

These creatures were massive, with heads the size of a bullhead and as the approached the edge of the newly formed hole, they reared up, and up and up like a massive cobra.

All the hunters and soldiers backed away as they towered over them on the other side of the broken bridge.

Then they dropped and the Wendo lept off them the attack the hunters. In the brief fight that followed, Jaune realized what they were doing, but too late.

The maggot-like Grimm had bridged the gap with their own bodies and now the Wendo were charging over them to continue the assault.

But a loud "CRACK" broke Jaune out of his thoughts of doom.

* * *

Thor lay under a pile of rubble, ready to slip away, his work done.

The man who had been leading the attack lay a few feet away, the cane was laying in front of him.

"Is this how you die?" a voice called to him, and his heart, for however few pumps it had left, spiked.

He looked around and saw…his father?

"Father?" he muttered, but he knew this wasn't his father, or at least not him in true form. The image before him was a ghostly white specter.

"You are Thor, God of thunder, and you let these mere mortals take your life?" The vision said.

"Father", he muttered to the thing he knew was not his father "I'm not strong enough…"

The specter or ghost whatever gestured to Ozpin's cane. "You know what to do, you just have to do it."

The vision faded, and Thor didn't know if it was true vision or his own subconscious telling him what to do, but he reached out and gripped the cane of the former headmaster.

He felt the energy he'd felt before start to fill him, but he felt it was trapped in this object. He didn't know where the idea came from, but with the last of his strength, he crashed the cane into the rubble he was trapped under.

The cane broke to pieces, but as it did the energy in it was released.

* * *

Many of the hunters and soldier were breaking and running at the sight of the bridge made of Grimm, and the Wendo riding across it.

Jaune felt his blood run cold, but didn't run. He looked to see his friends standing next to him and he wasn't about to break and run.

They'd die here, rather than running. As the Wendo crossed the bridge their mothers had made for them, Jaune was certain death had found them.

But something, he didn't know what, blasted through the bodies of the Shreikers, splitting most of them in half.

This was followed by a bolt of lightning that made the one Thor had just called look like a spark.

* * *

The wind was the strongest Yang had ever experienced. It blew the mist away like she'd blow a candle.

But the lightning bolt that passed the broken bridge was far more impressive.

It didn't seem possible. It was wider than the bridge itself. But it didn't seem to branch out to the side she was on, but rather to the side with the Grimm and the White Fang on it.

As she looked into this pillar of lighting she couldn't help but think of the book. Could this be the work of Thor's God's?

The logical part of her brain said no, but her heart was saying to not dismiss it outright.

As she looked into pure power of the lighting, she saw something. It looked like a man, his arms spread out, and he was holding something in his right hand.

The lightning died down, and she saw the figure more clearly. It was indeed a man, or at least he looked like a man. He seemed to radiate a natural light, that seem to illuminate all around him. He just hovered, mid-air, with sparks of lightning arcing off him.

He wore a red cape, almost like her sisters, but with no hood. He had silver armor on his arms, and his long blonde hair flowed down from his head, like Thor's used to.

But as the he turned to glance back at her and the group she was with, her heart damn near stopped.

It was Thor, but not as she'd seen him in months. He looked like he did before the fall of Beacon. He was unscarred, all his missing parts backs.

But he still seemed to radiate with a light she'd never seen before.

She was both overjoyed to see him, and yet scared, to see him in such a manner. As if he were the god he was named after.

As this thought crossed her mind, a truly insane thought came into her head. Could be possibly be…?

She shook her head to get rid of the idea, that was crazy, even now.

But still…

* * *

Thor hadn't felt like this in years. His power, coursing through him, his true power. His hammer in hand, he looked down at the remain Grimm and White Fang members on the other side of the bridge.

Raising Mjolnir, he started to spin it over his head, and the sound of thunder in the distance.

He called the lighting and soon dozens of bolts rained down the on the Grimm and Faunus. The Grimm were vaporized, and the Faunus either crumpled to the ground dead or were thrown off the edge of the bridge.

As their forces were being decimated, they started to fire on him, with assault rifles, rocket launchers and the Grimm throwing their spears.

He didn't bother to dodge or guard. They impacted him with as much effect as a gentle breeze might of affected a normal person.

The bullets bounced off him, the spears shattered and the rockets detonated to no effect.

Spinning his hammer faster, he called hail, as large and sharp as spears, impaling Grimm and White Fang a like. He called tornado's to thrown them into the air and off the edge of the bridge.

The screams of White Fang and Grimm echoed out as they plummeted to their deaths.

As he continued the onslaught, he felt a vague sense of fading, like he was running down a battery.

He didn't know how long this would last, how he'd called back his power was not a way he'd ever done it, and he had no idea if it was permanent or not. Better to fight this while he knew he could.

He spotted a lone figure still on the bridge, not killed by the barrage of lighting or hail.

Adam, his sword glowing a violent red.

* * *

Adam was having a flashback to fall of Beacon. The wind, the lightning, the hail. All things that had been thrown at him by this boy.

But the difference in scale and power was like comparing a firecracker to an atomic bomb. He could spot tornado's in the distances, and wind had was throwing debris the size of cars into the air so far and fast they disappeared in moments.

He absorbed more energy for his attacks in the few moments he'd started attack them than at any other point in his life.

His sword was actually vibrating so violently with the energy it hurt to hold it. If he could get one strike in, he could end him once and for all, but he needed him to come down to the ground for the best chance.

Adam didn't think he would, he could stay up there and pick them all off.

But then he did just what Adam wanted him to do and, landed on the edge of the broken bridge.

This was his chance and Adam charged him, sword raised to cut Thor clean down the middle.

* * *

Ruby couldn't believe what she was seeing. It was almost like a dream, but the fatigue and pain in her body told her that wasn't the case. But there he was, in the air, almost like his old self, but so much stronger. The pure scale was mind-boggling, she could see the storm affects reaching for miles in every direction, yet the all the destruction was concentrated on the other side of the bridge.

Thor had, at the peak of his power back at Beacon, could affect the weather in the area of one city block.

This was so far beyond that, she didn't know how to reconcile it in her mind in any other way than he was The God of Thunder.

Bullets, spears and rockets did nothing to him too, he'd never been that tough, in fact she didn't know anyone who could do that with no reaction.

Then she watched him land on the other side of the gap, and she spotted someone charging him.

It took her only a second to recognize Adam Taurus, and she called out to Thor "Look out!"

But instead of trying to dodge the attack or block it, instead he turned to smile at her as the blade came down on the top of his head.

And it exploded like it had been made of glass, and releasing an explosion strong enough to throw Adam back away from Thor.

Thor for his part didn't even seem to notice the attack, but turned back to Adam after a moment.

* * *

Adam rolled on the ground for about fifty feet before he managed to stop himself and get to his feet. He only stood for a second before collapsing to one knee and looked at his shattered sword.

Then he looked up at Thor, who was walking towards him like he was walking down a park road.

Adam eyed the mallet in his hand, and saw it was glowing with electricity.

This couldn't be, this just couldn't be. This inferior human had just stood there and took the strongest attack he'd ever used, and it had done nothing to him, but had destroyed his sword.

"No!" He should and ran at Thor, intending to kill him with the broken blade.

As he neared his target, Thor swung his mallet at his arm like he was swatting at a fly.

At first Adam thought his arm had been broken. The shock of the attack ran all the way up his arm and into his chest. What was more he couldn't feel anything below his elbow.

Dropping to his knees, he grabbed at his broken arm, but instead of feeling a mangled arm, he felt nothing but a bloody stump.

Finally taking a look, he saw that Thor's attack had either broken his arm off, or had blown it to pieces. The part that remain was twisted and mangled beyond recognition. If it hadn't been attached to his should, she wouldn't of know it was an arm.

He looked up into the face of boy…no man, who'd done this. How could a human, or anyone, be this strong?

"What are you?" He said through gritted teeth, waiting for the final blow.

"The God of Thunder." Thor said, and raised his hammer to finish off Adam.

* * *

Thor didn't take joy in killing, but this man had hurt him, Yang and Blake, and would ally with the Grimm to achieve his goals.

But before he could finish of the White Fang leader, A single Wendo threw a spear into his face. It shattered like glass, but it did obstruct his vision long enough to allow the Grimm to ride and get Adam and flee.

It was a futile effort, and tossing his hammer into the air once, he caught it and threw it at the fleeing Grimm.

He didn't hit it dead on, but off center, but the force threw the Grimm, it mount and the White Fang leader off the edge of the bridge into the abyss below.

The fog had cleared the moment he'd regain his power, but now he could see the lights of the weapons the Grimm carried fleeing back over the hills and mountains. There were still thousands of them, and he planned on killing as many of them as possible.

But he felt his power fading quickly, so he'd have to do it in one attack.

Rising into the air again, He called down one last bolt of lightning into Mjolnir.

* * *

Yang had dropped to her knees as Thor had started his assault, and now she was just sitting on the ground.

She watched him take Adam attack like it was nothing, and when he hit Adam's arm, it looked like someone had popped a balloon that had been filled with red paint.

Now he called another massive bolt of lightning into his hammer, and then he shot it out.

The lighting traveled the entire length of the bridge, and she watched it arc over the hills and mountains miles away.

It was like watching lighting in the sky but from a different angle. In the wake of the attack, the air smelled like burning ozone, and smoke of the dead Grimm rose into the air in such large quantities, it almost looked like a forest fire had caught in the surrounding area.

Her jaw had dropped open, and she could only think of one thing "He has got a lot of explaining to do."

* * *

Thor looked the fried corpses of the Wendo and White Fang for a moment before turning to return to his friends.

He flew and landed on the other side of the break in the bridge he'd made and looked at them all in turn.

The expressions on their faces would have been funny, if he wasn't sure he'd have to explain the situation. He'd danced around his past, and who he was the whole time he was with them, and now it had all come to the front and they had all seen it.

Ruby's face was a mixture of surprise, awe and joy. Jaune looked pale, almost like he was going to be sick. Blake's eyes were so wide, Thor thought she'd strain something.

Weiss looked like she was trying to mentally reconcile what she'd seen, not like she couldn't believe it, but didn't want to.

Nora was the only one smiling, and was almost jumping up and down with joy. Ren, looked by far the most composed, but his knees were shaking and he had to hold onto Nora for support.

Then he looked at Yang. She looked overjoyed, tears running down her face. She was sitting on the ground, and was slowly getting to her feet. She stumbled toward him and wrapped her arms around him, now openly sobbing.

He registered another force on his right and saw Ruby had joined her sister in embracing him. He returned it and said "I did say I wouldn't leave you, didn't I?"

"But!" Ruby near shouted looking up at him "You said you were going to die!"

"No." he said laughing "I said the skein of my life was woven, and that no matter what, I wouldn't live an instant longer. I just wasn't meant to die today."

Ruby sputtered at this and back away.

But the moment was broken by Jaune. "Thor!" he yelled, not in anger, but more out of the adrenaline rush he was still feeling "What the hell was that!"

"I'd like to know as well!" Weiss spoke up, stepping forward.

Yang and Ruby stepped back from Thor in order to really look at him.

* * *

He looked like he had back at school, the clothing aside. But even also seem to radiate light from himself.

Yang bite her lip, thinking of how they only hooked up after his accident, when he was so badly hurt. But he looked good now, better than ever even.

But that was something to think about later. "You kind of have to tell us what's going on, you aren't…" she felt like stupid kid for even trying ask him. This wasn't a fairy tale; these things didn't happen in the real world. But here he was standing before her.

But luckily Ruby finished the question. "So, are really, like, the Thor from those Viking stories, like the God of Thunder?"

Thor looked to Ruby, then to Yang, then to the others. Then he answered.

"Yes, I am Thor Odinson, Prince of Asgard, and God of Thunder." He held up his hammer for emphasis.

Okay, well that was out of the way, true or not, Yang had another question. "So why the act?" She said with a bit of anger grazing her voice.

"Act?" Thor asked, apparently confused.

"The being a normal human, the injuries, the poison, all of it. If you were this strong, why did…any of this things ever happen?"

* * *

Jaune suddenly felt angry. That was right! He could have stopped the Fall of Beacon single handily, saved Pyrrha, Penny, and even Ozpin.

"It was no act." Thor said quietly. "I was a mortal man then, stripped of my powers." He said with sadness in his voice.

"How? What could do that to you?" Jaune stepped in, wanting answers why this…god…as he called himself, let everything transpire as it had.

"My father." He said "What I've told you all, that was true, he sent me away, here, and I don't why, but-"He stopped talking as loud clunk echoed from his right.

Looking down, they all saw Mjolnir sitting on the ground.

Thor raised his right arm, and saw it looked like it was made of smoke and was blowing away.

Then he fell to his left as his leg did the same thing.

Yang ran to him to help him, but as she did, it seemed like his entire body was being blown away in smoke.

But it soon became clear it was more like he was transforming. After a couple seconds, he looked as he had when he had arrived in Mistral, minus his prosthetics and eye patch, and his clothes in tatters.

"What the hell was that!" Nora shouted, walking over to try and pick Thor's hammer for him.

She couldn't budge it, and started to yank on it as hard as she could.

"It won't do you any good." Thor said, looking at Nora and the Hammer. "Theirs and enchantment on it to keep other's from wielding it."

"What happened to you?" Ruby asked kneeling down next to him. "Where did your cool clothes go, and why are all your scars back?"

"The power." He said, somberly "Only came back to me for a moment, and I had to break this to return myself to my true form." Thor pulled out a Ozpin's case, the shaft gone and the handle so through cracked Jaune was surprised it was still in one piece.

"Where did you get that?" Yang asked, now curious as to how Thor got their old headmasters cane.

"The leader of the attack had it." He said, putting it away.

"Adam had that?" Blake finally spoke, stepping forward.

"No, I think this man was a human, and I'm certain he wasn't White Fang." He gestured to his own face and said "No mask."

"Wait so you broke the cane and got your powers back?" Yang asked "How does that work? And how did you know?"

Thor shook his head, to indicate he didn't know, but he still gave his explanation "It called to me, I could feel divine energy in it when that man hit me with it." He stopped talking for a moment, then began again "I saw a vision of my father down there." He pointed into the canyon. "I don't know if it was him or not, maybe it was just me hallucinating." He admitted.

* * *

Weiss watched the whole scene from a distance, she wanted answers, but Thor didn't seem to have many of his own.

But he'd lied to them, lied to them all. But she sort of understood why. Who would have believed him? She'd just seen him wipe out an army of Grimm and White Fang soldiers on his own as easily as she might of killed a bug, and she still felt doubt.

But gods coming to the world and walking among them? That was a lot to take in. If Thor was telling the truth, and she felt like he was, that opened a whole world of possibilities, and not all of them good.

If Thor was here, what about others from his world? What about the god Loki? Or the Fire Demon Surtur.

What if they were walking around, in human form, causing problems, maybe even involved in the disaster that seemed to be coming.

The dreams, and the events that just seemed to keep coming this past year. Thor had appeared almost three years ago, which seemed to be the time when all these events started to come into motion, where all evil seemed to start.

Had something followed him here? Was it even the reason he was here?

She didn't know, but she was scared now.

* * *

Qrow hadn't ever believed in any gods. Even when Ozpin told him of the brothers and their relics, he thought it was more likely something else, something more in line with what he considered normal.

But what he'd just seen, the raw power, it was beyond anything he'd ever seen, even from a full military operation, and this kid…no that wasn't right, he was a man, a god even, had done it so easily, when every hunter and soldier in the city was on the losing ending of the fight not a minute before he got his power back.

He watched his nieces and their friends talk to him and his power fade.

They talked for a moment, then he watched Yang help Thor to his feet and they headed back to the city.

Once they were gone, he went back to the where they were. The hammer was sitting on the ground, handle pointing into the sky.

He could feel the power of this thing, it was practically radiating off it. He seen the relics, and this felt like those, but much more potent. He reached out to try and pick it up.

But he stopped before actually touching it. He was worried it might burn him or electrocute him or something. But he'd see Nora try and pick it up and she was fine.

He gripped the handle and pulled.

Nothing, it didn't budge.

He put his other hand on it and pulled with all his strength, pumping Aura into his limbs to increases his strength.

The thing didn't even move an inch.

"Well, there is something more at work here." He muttered.

First thing he needed to do was talk to Thor, preferably when no one else was around. Then he needed to talk to Lionheart.

He thought he might have had a second chance here, to make up for the mistake he'd made. Oscar…the poor kid. It was his fault from bringing him outside the city to train him. He could of just done it at the school, but he was paranoid there were spy's there. But now he was gone, Ozpin with him, and the relic.

But this changed so many things, he felt something in his chest he hadn't felt in years. Something he'd come to hate when he did, because it almost always hurt him.

That feeling, was hope.

* * *

"I'm telling you I'm fine." Thor said as he sat in the Doctor's office.

"Humor me, oh so might God of Thunder." Yang said, keeping her hand on his shoulder to keep him from standing up. "You were nearly dead before you showed up to fight." She said, rubbing his shoulder. "I want to make sure nothing is left from it."

Thor had insisted the hammer would have purged the parasites and poison from his body and healed him. But she still wanted to make sure.

The Doctor finally came in, and she looked confused. "I don't know how, but there are no traces of the poison or the parasites in you blood."

She shook her head "I hesitate to use the word "miracle", but…I don't know what else to call this."

Thor stood up on the primitive prosthetic he'd been given, and said "Thank you doctor, now, if you'' excuse me."

He started to make his way out of the office and Yang stood up to follow "Thank you doctor." She said and rushed after him.

As they walked down the hall Yang spoke up "So what next?"

"I need to replace my arm and leg, and my weapon. I can't use Mjolnir anymore, until I figure out how to truly regain it." He said limping down the hall.

Well, that was important she guessed, but that wasn't what she meant. "I mean you and me." She said "Don't you think this might change the dynamic of our relationship." She said and he turned to look at her, confusion on his face "just a bit?" she added.

"Why would it?"

She couldn't believe he'd say that. "Ummm, you being a deity is a pretty important piece of information decided to leave out."

"Would you have believed me if I had said I was a god?" He asked "Or do you think they'd have sent me to some asylum?"

Yang opened her mouth to say something, then shut it. She knew he was right. He's omitted his past, but she could see why.

She remembered when they had found the book, she had worried that he might be unhinged if he thought he was a god.

"But still…" she muttered "You don't think there is a level in inequality here? I mean, how old are you really?" She asked, not sure she wanted the answer. "I mean…"

"I don't know honestly." He said. "I remember when the human race was made, and the world formed."

Yang felt herself get a little dizzy at that. That old? How…well she knew how, but it still made her head spin.

"Yang." He said turning to look her in the eye "I am a human now, this body is young, I am human now."

"Thor, I get what you're saying, but…" He certainly wasn't human back on the bridge. He was completely immune to everything that hit him, bullets might as well of been spitballs. "How can you even be interested in someone like me?" She finally got what was bothering her. He had to know other gods who were stronger than her, smarter, better looking. She was feeling like she was competing against beings she had no hope against.

"Because I do." He said smiling, and kissed her on the cheek. "Now, let's get me a real arm and leg." He tapped the wall with the prosthetic he had "I don't care to move around like this."

Thor had responded in a typical manner for him. A simple and true answer, not explaining his points, but stating them as fact. His frankness made her feel better, because it made her feel like he was being honest with her.

That made her feel better. A great deal better in fact. She made to follow him, but as she did, she passed the waiting room and saw the news feed.

She wasn't at all surprised to see it was covering the attack. But the video being shown was of Thor finishing off the army of the Wendo and White Fang.

She doubted anyone would recognize him now, but the speculation on what had happened was running wild.

She thought she might see some interesting news stories in the coming days. She wondered if there was any word of a living god roaming the city.

Still, while she didn't think Thor would be identified, there was a chance of it. There were others on that bridge, and at least one of them could probably connect the dots.

If that happened and became public knowledge, well privacy would likely go out the window.

So she decided in that moment, she better get all the moments she could with Thor while she could.

As they left the hospital, Yang couldn't help but think she had won over a god, a literal god.

Half joking, in her head she thought "damn, I knew I was good, but this good?" She laughed at her own internal joke and Thor looked at her.

"What's so funny?" He said with a smile.

"Nothing." She said grabbing his arm "Just thinking that I'm so hot that the gods themselves fall for me."

They looked at each other for a moment, then both started laughing.

* * *

Thor hadn't told anyone yet, but when he returned to his true form. He remembered more of what he was sent here for.

Not much, and in fact it didn't make any sense to him as it was, which was more frustrating. He remembered his father mentioning something about a "safeguard", and how he had to leave to ensure it.

It was irritating but, he now had some sort of track to follow to figure this whole situation out.

He also remembered where his knowledge of how to build his weapon came from, his first. His father had imprinted it on him, so he could…what? That was still missing, but now he knew he could trust the knowledge.

Maybe he'd try again? Fix the issues he had before. And now he knew he could safely pass the information onto his friends, help them improve their weapons.

So while he was upset he still couldn't use his powers at will, he was happy to have some answers.

Maybe even improve the prosthetics.

Well, things did seem to be looking up.

But he needed to get some replacement gear, at any rate. He didn't have any of his prosthetics or his ax. He supposed he'd have to retrieve it. The parts were too valuable to just forget, even in pieces, there were things he could use.

But right now, after everything he'd been through the last few days, he wanted to relax, let his mind wander a bit, and recover mentally.

He remembered telling Ruby, what seemed like forever ago, that rest was as important as training. Well, they all needed rest right now, and he planned to take it.

* * *

Ruby sat with Jaune on a park bench, holding his hand, resting her head on his shoulder.

"I can't believe it Jaune, it's just like the old stories." She said, kicking her feet back and forth.

Jaune didn't respond right away, but he had to agree with her. A living God coming to save the day. They had just experience a literal Deus Ex Machina. It was crazy, yet, he'd seen what he could do, with no effort.

"I know it's crazy, but it explains a lot." He finally said.

"Like what?"

"I mean…he always seemed way more experienced than he should, given how old he is." He replied "Or how old he looks, I guess." He corrected himself.

"Huh…I hadn't thought of that." Ruby said.

They sat there for a few more minutes before Ruby stood up, still holding his hand. "Let's go do something." She said, pulling Jaune to his feet.

"What?"

"I don't know, but I…feel so alive after all that, winning the battle, all of us making it out, Thor not only getting better, but seeing what he can do. I just feel really good right now."

Jaune looked into her eyes, and was happy to see she was feeling so happy, but he thought he saw something else in there that might not be so good.

But he had to admit he was feeling really good right now, so he agreed.

"Alright, let's go find something to do."

* * *

Blake had made her way to the Library. It was abandoned in the attack, and she was going to find that other book.

Thor had said he'd translated it, but there could be something in the book itself, especially now that she was sure they were dealing with real magic. The one she'd carried for so long felt like it was almost alive.

She felt like she need to bring the two together.

It didn't take her long to find it with the building deserted. It looked only somewhat like the other, but the runes were a giveaway. Once she picked it up, she knew this was the right one. It was warm to the touch, despite being the vault since Thor and Yang has translated it.

Thor had the other in the hospital, and she didn't know what he did with it. But that was something that she could deal with later.

As she made her way out of the building, she thought of what she saw on the bridge. Thor had taken Adam apart in an instant. Not just that, but the sword breaking on his head like that. It was almost too much to really comprehend.

A god, an honest to…well God, god.

There were tons of stories of course, tales an religions on them. But to have one walking among them? It was insane.

If she hadn't seen what he did with her own eyes, she wouldn't of believed it.

But the smell he gave off, the one that had altered her to his presence a fueled her interest in him. Now it made sense, or maybe not sense. But it explained it. He was human, not really, no matter how much he looked it, she had know he wasn't human or Faunus. He was more, just like she had thought, even in his mortal form, he was greater than most.

Shaking her head, she decided to go find Sun. He's been MIA since the first raid. She'd been worried about him, knew trying to find him in this city would be near impossible, especially in the climate of the city in terror.

In all honesty, she'd expected him to of found her by now.

She knew he could look after himself, but she worried none the less, he could be hurt or worse, and she knew that, as much as she wanted to dismisses these feelings as unwarranted, they were actually completely realistic.

* * *

Nora sat with Ren in their room. The revelation on Thor was so incredibly mindblowing, that Nora couldn't contain her excitement.

She was friends with the honest to goodness God of Thunder! She wondered if when he got his powers back he could make it rain maple syrup and pancakes? He was a god after all, that shouldn't be too hard to do right?

And he liked his hammer's, just like her. She knew she liked him for a reason.

But Ren had gone quiet in the aftermath of all the excitement, and she wanted to know what was bother him.

"Is everything okay?" She finally managed to ask, wanting to asked the right question, couldn't figure it out, and decided to keep it vague.

"It's just." Ren started "This means that, everything, or most everything in that book is real, or at least based on something real, right?"

"Ummm, sure?" She said, not certain where he was going.

"Did you ever read the part about Valhalla?"

"A bit, I really just skimmed."

"Did you read the part about the Valkyrie?"

"Ummm, that's my last name…" she said trailing off.

"It's also the name of the women who bring the dead into Valhalla."

"Umm…what are you saying?" She asked hesitantly.

"I don't know Nora, but you don't know much about your family, you think this may be a clue?"

Nora didn't know about that, but she found herself wondering how she hadn't made the connection before.

* * *

Weiss walked the streets, thinking about the world-changing event she'd just witnessed.

This…this changes so much. If Thor found out a way to draw on the power reliability, then…it would throw off the power balance of the world. A single entity, who could decided who would win that conflict. Anyone who had him on their side would have an unfair bargaining chip.

What would Atlas say, for example, say to Vale if they had a trade dispute, and Thor commanded, or demanded, they accept whatever terms Vale wanted. What could they do to stop him?

Or is Mistral wanted Menagerie to have outsourced factory, where the laborers had to work for penny's a day?

No one should have that much power. But he was a god, maybe he was supposed to? Or maybe he knew how keep out of the affair of mortals? Apparently the rest of gods did, given how they never seemed show up when people needed them.

But that issue aside, there were other things that scared her. The monsters on his book, the malevolent gods as well.

She was going crazy thinking of all the things this now meant. But he didn't have access to his full power now, and while she thought that might not be good for their current situation, it might be good overall.

She had other things to worry about, like Jaune and Ruby. She didn't think she'd ever be jealous in this type of situation, but here she was, jealous.

She sighed "I can't believe what my life has become." And sat down, rubbing her temples.

* * *

Adam was in haze, and was almost certain he was dead. That was until he was dropped on the ground by something big and strong.

Opening his eyes, he looked around and saw a handful of the Grimm, and maybe a dozen White Fang soldiers.

All of them looked the worst for wear.

"Where are we?" he croaked out, trying to sit up, but his head was swimming and he lay back down.

"You are at the camp of the Wendo." A cultured an vaguely familiar voice responded.

Adam looked around and a man he knew to be named Arthur Watts, walking towards him.

"Wendo? What the hell is that?" he asked, wanting some clarification.

"What the media has taken to calling these fine Grimm." Watts said point to the humanoid Grimm.

Watts walked up to him and knelt down to look at him closer "That was quite the failure Mr. Taurus, you're forces as well as the Grimm, decimated by one man. " He stood up and glared down at him "And Hazel, gone, along with the relic you managed to get for us." He walked around the camp, shaking his head, but Adam just watch. "We are very disappointed in you."

"It wasn't my fault, we had them!" He growled, rolling onto his stomach and pushing himself up with his reaming arm. "Did you see him!" He roared "He said he was a god, and I'm inclined to believe him!" He finally managed to get to his feet. "How could we stand up to that! How could anyone!"

Watts just walked around the camp for a few moments. "No, I don't think anything on this world could, but luckily, I just might have a solution.

He waved his hand and truck pulled forward with a massive tarp on the back. One of the Wendo pulled the tarp off, and inside Adam saw what was best described as machine in the shape of a skeleton.

Watts the whistle and one of the large worm-like Grimm came forwards and shot tentacle out of its mouth and consumed the machine.

"What is that?" Adam asked.

"A machine, more advanced than any other. It can even generate Aura, but it need some more parts to work.

"Like what?" Adam asked, sure he didn't want the answer.

As he asked, Grimm, typical once came forward, and the worm began eating them. It ate maybe a hundred of them before the Wendo stepped forward to be consumed.

"All right, so it will fuse with the Grimm, but will that really make it that strong?"

"No." What's said "It needs more, life."

Before he knew what hit him, Adam was on the ground, completely paralyzed. The few White Fang soldier left stepped forward to help, but were soon on the ground themselves.

He was helpless as they were dragged to the worm and it wrapped it's tentacles around them and pulled them into its gaping maw.

* * *

 **AN: So did anyone catch the reference to the Original Comic run.**


	14. Norns

**AN: Okay, first off, I'd like to thank RustedThuder for the review, it's appreciated as always.**

 **Also, While I said the last chapter was going to be the last one in this section, I'm not ready to move it yet from an editing standpoint.**

 **I also feel like since I started the story here, I kind of feel like I should finish it here.**

 **I'm just not sure what to do in this regard. I know I'm going to do it at some point, just not sure when.  
**

 **Also, With Vol.5 now out, This should go without saying, but I'm going to be disregarding certain Canon material to stay within the line of story I want to write. I will adapt where it still fits with my goal, but I'm not going to change everything I have planned.  
**

 **Also I'd like to take this time to make clear that there Will be Spoilers for Vol.5 I'm not going to be retelling it, but elements of it will be found here.**

 **Well, you guys who have made it this far aren't here for my thoughts, other than the ones' I put into the story.**

 **So here's the next chapter.**

* * *

 **Norns**

* * *

Watts watched as the giant Grimm's body swelled up, as the huge meal it had eaten settled somewhere in its stomach.

He didn't know how long this fusion would take, not only due to the sheer volume of what was trying to be achieved, but the fact an inorganic component, and very large one at that, was involved now.

The worm just lay on the ground and made guttural sounds that reminded him of a sick or dying animal. He supposed that was very likely this would kill it, but that didn't matter in the end.

He'd leave it to finish its work, while he tried to salvage the disaster of the attack. First thing, was to try and find the relic Hazel had lost when the bridge had been destroyed.

It would still be at the bottom of the canyon, and he knew the general area of where it should have landed. The cane itself wasn't that important, but what was hidden inside it.

Ozpin had taken the relic and hidden it in that thing, not only to keep it with him, but to hide it in plain sight. That was why they couldn't find it after the school feel.

He guessed he couldn't use the artifact while it was inside, or if he could, it was severely limited, otherwise Cinder would of likely been killed when she fought him. He didn't even know if it was possible to get it out of it's container under normal circumstances, but he was taking steps in that regard.

Hazel shouldn't have had the damn thing with him during the attack, but wouldn't let it out of his sight. Either he didn't want to lose it, or he wanted to make sure he received credit for it's retrieval. Arthur thought the first was more likely, Hazel had been dutiful, and not particularly driven by advancement.

But, so long as no one else knew what it was, or if they did, the Hazel had it, or he was even at the battle, it should be fine.

He'd have some searching to do, but he didn't doubt he'd find it.

The Grimm wailed in pain, it raised its head and let it drop to the ground. He could almost feel sorry for it…almost.

Setting off for his search, he thought of how he could use this to her personal advantage. He could be the one to retrieve not one, but two relics. That was surely to put him his Salem's good graces, perhaps even make him her second in command.

* * *

Qrow walked down the halls of Haven, towards the "forge" as students called it. It wasn't, strictly speaking, the correct term. It was more or a mixture of forge and machining shop. There were part for hammer out blades, but tons of other machines for making gun parts and machine pieces.

He knew he find Thor here, Yang had told him as much when he visited her and Ruby this morning.

As he thought of his nieces, and felt a crushing shame over the way he'd carried himself over the past few days. He'd been completely unable to help them in any real capacity, because he was too wrapped up in his own failures.

Granted, they were bad, but he should have been used to it by now, the setbacks, the tragedy. He didn't really to want to get used to it, but he should be able to cope with it better than he did.

He had made a personal vow not to let it get to that point again. Their father wasn't here for them right now, and both of them had lost their mothers. He was the only family they had on this side of the world, unless Raven was floating around nearby, but he didn't count her anyway.

As he entered the forge, he saw Thor working on a bench, with pieces of equipment around him, sparking flying out as he worked.

Lionheart had agreed to give him whatever he wanted in order to make his new equipment. That wasn't an offer extended to anyone else. It was his rewards for saving the city, a small token of thanks.

What Thor had done wasn't really know to the wider circles of the city. Or more accurately, it wasn't widely known he was the one who had done it.

Qrow didn't doubt the truth would come out, no one was actively trying to hide who he was, but none one who really knew was giving the information out either.

But Thor had expressed a desire not to let it happen faster than its natural course. He knew once it was out there, his life wouldn't be nearly as private. The News was almost exclusively about the attack on the Bridge and sudden arrival of some "Unknown Hero" as he was being called, that destroyed the enemy.

But Qrow also thought there was a bit more to it than that.

He didn't think Thor could replicate the same feat again under normal circumstances. He didn't want to be put into a situation where he had to tell them he couldn't. Qrow thought that for the time being that was for the best.

The news coverage had caused a huge turn around in moral of the city, people felt happier and safer than ever, thinking this being would just come in and save them.

But Qrow didn't think Thor could do that, but he'd like to find out if he'd ever be able to.

He walked up to him as he worked, and tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention.

Thor turned off his torch and turned to face Qrow, pulling off his eye protection.

"Can I help you?" His voice was cool, not hostile, not exactly, but not welcoming. He supposed he hadn't made a good impression on him over the last week.

"Yeah, you can." Qrow said, pushing forward. "How did you do it?" He asked, not specifying what he meant, there was only one thing he'd bothered to ask Thor about.

Thor sighed and picked up a rag to wipe his hands off. "It started back at Beacon." He said somberly, and Qrow, listen intently. "I wasn't sure what to do, in fact I don't think I was actually at all aware of what was going on in truth." He said, sighing.

"Yeah, but tell me how it happened." Qrow wanted to cut through straight to the event itself.

"Well we were at this cabin, while I was recovering, and we decided- "

"What?" Cut him off "are you talking about?" he was lost now, was the hammer or something alive and talked to him.

"Well me and Yang decided- "

"Oh, my god!' Qrow slapped his hand over his face.

"Yes?" Thor said smiling.

"Not you!" Qrow growled at him. The big smirk on his face told him everything he needed to know, Thor was messing with him. "I'm not asking about how you and my niece hooked up! I'm asking how you pulled off the whole 'Thundergod', thing!"

"Oh, you should have been more specific." Thor said with such a tone of fake innocence's that Qrow felt his blood pressure rise. But Thor reached into his pocket and pulled something out.

It was the handle of Ozpin's cane, cracked and looking ready to fall to pieces. Qrow thought if Thor dropped it, it might shatter into pieces.

"Where did you get that?" Qrow's voice was much more serious now.

"The one leading the Wendo had it, he was a man, I don't think he was White Fang, he didn't look it." Thor held up the handle to show it in the light. "He tried to attack me with it, but I felt energy coming from it, it made me strong enough to call one last bolt of lightning." He said turning the broken remains of the cane to look it over. "It's like it called to be down there at the bottom of the canyon. I can't explain it more than instinct told me to break it, and I did. I got my powers back for a little while, but as you saw, they didn't stay."

Thor held the handle out to Qrow to allow him to take it an examine it.

Qrow took it and popped a compartment in the handle, surprised it yeilded so easily. Thor looked on interested as Qrow pulled out what looked like a silver metal coin the size of a silver dollar. It was cracked right down the middle.

"What is that?" Thor ask, and Qrow sighed.

"One of the relics I told you about, one for Choice specifically, and it looks like you destroyed it."

Thor's eyes went a little wide, and looked at the coin, before finally saying "Oops."

Qrow gritted his teeth at this response, he didn't seem to catch the gravity of the situation.

Slipping the now useless relic back into the handle, he tossed back to Thor. "So, breaking, or destroying the relics gives you power?"

Thor shrugged, indicating he really didn't know. "Why was in even in the cane in the first place?" He asked.

Qrow sighed "Oz wanted to move it out of it's hiding place and put in an new one, that could be moved if it had to, as I understand it, that things shouldn't even open unless someone in particular tries it, but I guess smashing it did away with that." Qrow did not add that he didn't think destroying the container, or relic, should of even been possible."Well, thanks for the talk, I've got something else to see to." With that he turned and left.

* * *

Thor pocketed the handle with the coin inside. He could still sense a glimmer of divine energy in it, not much more than a spark, but he thought he might be able to use it in his equipment. Melting it down and incorporating it into the metal what his plan right now.

But right now, he needed to finish his arm and leg. The temporary ones he was using were just inferior. The state of art one's were lost, destroyed in his attack. He's taken a bullhead to the spot to try and recover them, but the usable parts that were left could have fit in a soda can.

Jarnbjorn was significantly better, but was needed to be fixed up.

But first thing was first. The arm and leg he was working on, he hadn't made from scratch, but rather had Lionheart get him something close to what Ironwood had given him and Yang. It wasn't quite as good, but he was going to modify it with what he'd learned in his transformation.

He added armor plating to both and reinforced the interior structure, in the fashion of the Destroyer armor. It was the same metal he'd used to make Jarnbjorn, mixed with some silver-steel and adamantine dust.

The result resulting metal was pitch black, and wasn't sure why it had come out that way, but he didn't really care as long as if functioned they way he wanted it to.

Then next thing he did was insulate then electronics even more heavily than his old prosthetic, so lighting wouldn't cause them to shut down, or rather make it harder to shut them down.

Once he put the finishing touches on them, he'd move onto his weapon again.

* * *

Ruby and Jaune walked out of the hunter supply shop, and Jaune wasn't exactly sure what had prompted the trip. Well, he did, but he didn't know why Ruby had decided to do it now.

"You think Thor will like what picked out for him?" Ruby asked, a bit nervousness in her voice.

"Sure, why wouldn't he?" Jaune replied.

"I don't know, just I'm not exactly sure it's his…style?" she said the last part in a questioning tone, showing she wasn't sure she'd used the right word.

"I'm sure it's exactly his style Ruby, you saw what he was wearing." Jaune put a hand on her shoulder, kneading the muscles with his thumb.

"Yeah, but what about what I got Yang? You know how much for fashion-oriented than me, I think her standards are going to be a lot higher."

"Ruby, you need to calm down about this, everyone will love what you got them, if for no other reason than you were thinking about them when you got it."

That got a smile out of her.

Jaune didn't know why she'd wanted to go out and get something for everyone so suddenly. It may have been the money they'd gotten for taking part in the defense of the city. Every hunter who had been there was paid a generous amount, even the ones who bugged out after the bridge broke.

That still irritated Jaune sometimes. The hunters who had run were getting as much recognition as those who had stayed. He knew they had fought bravely in the first half of the battle, but still, they had left.

He knew he shouldn't be judging anyone, everyone had a breaking point. But still, he thought…well he wasn't sure. He didn't care about money, so much as…was it recognition? No that wasn't right either. He didn't care so much if he was famous or not.

He thought it might just be he was angry they hadn't stayed to do what they were supposed to do.

"Jaune, you still with me?" Ruby's voice broke him out of his thoughts, and he realized he was gazing into the distance.

"Yeah, sorry just thinking about some stuff."

"Kay…" Ruby's tone told him she was a bit concerned.

"I'm fine, let's head back to the school." He smiled and she smiled back.

With that they went back.

* * *

Blake had found Sun, and she sort of wished she hadn't.

He was sitting in jail cell, apparently accused of breaking and entering a council meeting. He'd probably have been out by now if he hadn't been carrying a weapon when he did it.

She understood why he'd done it, to warn them. But they hadn't known that at the time, and then there was the Faunus prejudice that came with almost anywhere they went.

The White Fang's part in the attack wasn't doing him any favors.

"Blake, you got to get me out of here!" He said to her, his tone strained and panicked. "There are these guys in here, who do not like Faunus, and I don't whatever they have planned is going to be good for my health."

"Sun…I think I might be able to help, but it'll be a day or two, you think you'll be alright till then?"

He didn't look too happy about this news, but he nodded in agreement.

"Alright, I'll get right on it, just hang tight, okay Sun?"

He almost whimpered in response, and she didn't think she'd ever felt so bad for someone before.

As she walked out of the police station, she pulled out her scroll and dialed Weiss's number.

* * *

Weiss sat in the apartment she had rented. It was far from the standard she'd grown up in, but it was more than adequate.

She had managed to hide some money in an account her father knew nothing about. Her sister, the last time she had spoken to her, had told her to do so, and helped her do it.

It wasn't really all that much, but she'd been fine for some time with it.

She was thinking of so many things that just wouldn't leave her mind. What the worst thing was, she was thinking of too many things at once to really decided on a course of action.

Her scroll buzzed, and she saw that it was Blake.

"Hello?" she said as she answered.

"Weiss, it's Blake. Look, I know we haven't really seen each other for a while, and haven't had much time to catch up, but could you do me a favor?"

A little taken aback by this, Weiss answered anyway "Sure, what is it?"

"Sun is in jail, you think you could…pull some string to get him out?"

No, she didn't think she could. She was disinherited, but there was something she might be able to do. "I'll see what I can do."

"Thanks' Weiss, I'll talk to you later." With that she hung up.

She'd have to do some crafty and underhanded persuasion. But Weiss thought she might be able to wrangle what Blake wanted.

And frankly she was grateful for a distraction.

* * *

Nora wanted to talk to Thor, about his people. No, that wasn't right, not now. The people who worshipped him. She didn't know anything really about her family, but the comparisons, she couldn't ignore.

Could she have been descended from the Vikings? She thought she was, now that she examined it. Her last name, her temperament, her strength. All attributes of the Viking people.

The idea of a heritage, that was something new to her. And she found she wanted it. A cultural identity was something she never felt she had ever had.

But she didn't want to bother him. The reasons varied, but they all seemed important. He was trying to fix his equipment for one. And he wanted some time to relax, after everything. He'd been on deaths door and had pulled back from it.

But then there was the simple fact she was intimidated by him. The idea she was talking to someone who had been worshipped by her ancestors, or potential ancestors. She didn't know, but felt there should be some level of reverence there.

He had made her world so much bigger. The idea of where she came from, the reality of gods and demons. Other realms and worlds.

These had been mere ideas in the minds of most men, now were fact in her mind.

She just knew she'd have to do something about it soon, she didn't want to just sit on this.

* * *

Ren was worried about Nora. She had become quiet and introspective ever since the battle and their talk.

He felt it was his fault, bringing it up. He should have left it alone, but he thought it was something important to say. But she'd never of thought of the connection on her own.

Nora wasn't dumb. On the contrary, he thought in some ways she was smarter than Weiss or Blake, but she wasn't good at making connections.

He tried to talk to her, but he never got much.

She needed to talk to Thor directly, but at the same time she didn't seem to want to bother him.

If she wouldn't do it, he would. He hated going behind her back, but this was one those times where someone needed to do something good for themselves, but was scared to do it.

If she hadn't spoken to him by tomorrow, he'd bring it up to Thor.

* * *

Thor finished up on the leg, and sighed. "That should do it."

He took off the temporary prosthetic he'd been using on his leg and replaced it with his own modified piece. He'd done the same with arm a few hours ago, and the difference was just as noticeable.

Both limbs felt significantly stronger than the others, he'd dare say even stronger than the one Ironwood had given him.

He looked at his ax and decided to finish up for the night. He could work on it tomorrow.

With that in mind, he went back to the room he shared with Yang and Ruby.

As he walked he wondered if he should try and recreate Mjolnir again, or if he should just modify Jarnbjorn.

As he got to the door, he pushed these thoughts out of his mind. There would be time for that tomorrow, and right now he wanted to relax. They only had, maybe a week before they'd be back on the hunt again for what had happened at Beacon.

As he came entered the room, he saw Yang laying on the bed, reading a magazine.

"Hey, how'd it go?" She asked, looking up from her magazine.

"Better than I expected." He said holding up his new arm to show it off. "I don't know why, but I just seemed to know how to do it."

"Wow." Yang said standing up to look at it. "You make that from scratch?"

"No." He said while he let Yang look over it "I used another one as a base, but I've improved it."

"Yeah, not joking, why's you make it all black though? Doesn't seem like your color."

"Just came out like that when I alloyed the metals together. I'm not exactly sure why their color changed."

"Well, it's cool." She finally stopped looking it over and looked at him directly.

"You going to work on your combat gear next?"

Thor nodded and sat down to take his boots off.

"Any idea what you're going make? Sticking with the ax or you thinking of going back to what you had at Beacon?"

Thor was honestly on the fence about it. He thought he could do it more safely this time, but it still felt like tempting fate.

"I think I might go somewhere in the middle of the road. I might take some old idea and use them, but I don't think I'm going to try and totally recreate it."

"Well, whatever you think is best." He said getting behind him and started to rub his shoulders. He didn't realize how stiff he was from working all day.

"Oh, that feels good." He moaned.

"You need to stand up and stretch when you work, otherwise you going to end up being all locked up."

He knew that, but he'd been in a bit of a zone, and wanted to get his work done. He felt her breath on his ear "You know what we haven't done in a while?"

He smiled and said "Camping?"

She laughed "No…" moved around in front of him to kiss him.

* * *

Watts hadn't found the relic, and was now worried that his it had been found and retrieved. It was clear someone, or several someone's, had been here.

Bodies were missing, and gear had been salvaged. Even Hazels body was gone.

He'd go back into the city if he had to, but he wanted to make sure.

He pulled out a book Salem gave him. She didn't tell him where it came from, but it was clearly old, and in an artistic design he wasn't familiar with, which was saying something. He was also under the impression this was a recent addition to her collection.

The book, was unique. It never had the same content twice. It was always changing. The subjects didn't change, at least as far as he could tell, but the information on them did.

The relics were in here, and an update to date location were always in it. It was like a tracking device in some ways, and a computer in other.

It to be another type of magic like the Maidens. It was how they'd managed to get the drop Qrow and the boy. He's been skeptical of its abilities until that point.

But something was wrong. Only three were now on the page.

He closed it, and opened it again. Still only three.

"This is impossible." He muttered "They can't just disappear."

He closed and opened it again. And again, and again.

It was gone.

At worst, it had somehow been destroyed, or at best it was just lost beyond nearly all hope of recovery.

He knew if he didn't return with the other relic, he'd been in a whole world of trouble. He thought he could pawn this failure off on Hazel and Adam, save himself, but it was no doubt going to be an unpleasant experience.

Luckily, the Mistral relic was practically his.

* * *

Qrow sat across form Lionheart, and the man was dodging his questions.

"Listen, Leo, if we can replicate that event, we could end this in one day." Qrow said, leaning forward "You saw him. Forget the god's who left us here with some pieces of junk. We have a god that actually cares, he'll save us all if we let him."

"But we can't know if it will work a second time." Lionheart said in calm, slightly gruff voice. "We've been charged to protect these relics Qrow, we aren't supposed to use them."

"I get that, but if we gave it to him, he could save us and free us of that burden. Salem would never get her hands on them if he destroyed them, and she'd probably be dead anyway."

Lionheart stroked his beard, thinking. "I'll take it under advisement, but I need to talk to someone first."

Qrow raised an eyebrow "Who? I thought we were in on this together."

"We are Qrow, but you must understand the need for some secrets. It's not that I don't trust you, but only a fool put's his trust in one thing." He said and sipped from a teacup in front of him that reminded Qrow of Ozpin. "Secrets are strongest when known by the fewest."

Qrow sighed and stood up to leave "I hope you know what you're doing."

With that he left.

* * *

Blake and Weiss walked out of the police station, Sun on their heels, taking his wallet out of an envelop they had given him.

"Weiss." He said jogging up to them "I can't say how much I appreciate this."

"Yeah, what's you do?" Blake asked.

Weiss smiled before talking "I simply told the chief of police that the Schnee's didn't take kindly to their friends being locked up so unjustly. And it would be a shame for dust to stop coming to the city, and for his superiors to know that it was all because he was too stubborn to let a simple misunderstand go."

"And he bought that?" Blake asked laughing.

"I don't think he did, not really, but I could see it wasn't worth the risk to keep Sun when it had become clear he was just trying to help, as poorly as he handled the situation."

"Weiss, I'd could kiss you." Sun said only for Blake to punch him in the arm, playfully, but still enough to make him wince. "Ow."

Weiss suddenly felt very lonely. Blake and Sun were pretty clearly something of an item, even if they hadn't made anything official.

Blake and Sun, Ren and Nora, Thor and Yang…Jaune and Ruby. She didn't have anyone to love her like that, and she suddenly felt like she was on the outside of something.

She'd thought finding her friends would make her feel like she'd come home. And it had, but now she had this feeling of isolation she didn't really understand completely. She did, and she didn't. She knew why she was feeling it, but didn't know why it was so much stronger now than it had back home.

* * *

"So, Yang should still be here, but Thor isn't going to be back until later, we can give it to him them." Ruby said as she carried her bags to the room she shared with Thor and Yang. "Jaune, could you get the door?"

"Sure." He said balancing his bags and boxes in one hand and opened the door. As he opened the door, he shouted something, and dropped everything he was holding to cover his eyes, shouting "I'm sorry!" He back peddled out of the room.

Ruby's curiosity got the better of her, and looked in and saw her sister and Thor in the middle of a very intimate act.

Her face turned beat red, and covered her face and retreated into the hall.

* * *

Yang pulled the sheets up to cover herself, and her face was glowing red.

Thor seemed totally unabashed. "You think they saw?"

She glared at him.

"Right, so, you want me to talk to them?"

"Thor!" she near shouted "My little sister just walked in on me having sex with my boyfriend!"

"Yeah?" he said, raising an eyebrow.

Yang sighed in frustration. This had to be a cultural thing, she knew he was totally unconcerned with anything physical, he'd go naked in front of a crowded room and think nothing of it.

"Just trust me, this is embarrassing." She said starting to get dressed.

"Well." He said standing up and getting dressed himself. "I'll talk to them."

Yang didn't think that was a great idea, but she didn't think she could face them right now. Her sister seeing her having sex was bad, but now Jaune had seen her naked too. That wasn't something she'd have even of thought would happen in anything other than maybe strictly something medically related.

"Sure…just…have some tact."

"You know me." Thor said grinning "I'm nothing if not discrete."

Yang knew he was joking, but also knew he was right. When he wanted to be, he was very insightful and wise. Problem was he often didn't want to.

He walked to door saying "I don't know what the big deal it with sex. Hell, it's how we all got here."

She couldn't help but laugh at that.

* * *

Jaune and Ruby were sitting on the floor outside the room, just staring at the wall, faces still glowing with embarrassment.

Thor came out of the room, thankfully clothed.

"You two enjoy the show?"

"No!" they both cried out, only to see he was smiling, teasing them.

"Sorry we didn't leave a sock on the door." He finally said.

Jaune got the reference, but Ruby clearly did not.

Thor sat down from across them "Look, I get this is embarrassing…for some of us…but it's just something people do." He said smiling "It's really not any worse than walking in on someone in the shower." He said smiling,

Jaune could see he truly believed it, and while he didn't agree in the slightest, it made him feel a bit better that he wasn't upset with them.

He didn't think Yang would be as understanding though, and he thought he might avoid her for a day or two.

He looked at Ruby and she looked completely calmed down now. The color of her face was back to normal. "Really?" she said.

"Really." Thor smiled, and patted them on the shoulders before going back into the room.

Ruby's face looked pensive, but frankly Jaune was happy Yang hadn't given them a beating.

But it wasn't really their fault, how were they supposed to know what they were doing?

"Jaune?" Ruby asked finally breaking the silence. "Why would they put a sock on the door?"

"It's supposed to be like an indicator or note, telling anyone on the outside that whoever is in their needs privacy."

"Oh, I don't get why it's a sock, but I guess if it's supposed to be the clue…I'll remember from now on." She said, nodding while she spoke, like she was trying to convince herself of it.

But he was disturbed by how quickly she'd gotten over the embarrassment.

"Well, let's go give them what we picked up." Ruby said picking up the bags and boxes.

"Ummm, you go ahead Ruby, I think I'm going to head back and check on Nora and Ren." He said standing up.

"Well, here, given them these then." Ruby said handing him a bag and a box, which he knew she'd picked out for his teammates.

"Sure." He said taking the packages.

"See you later." Ruby leaned in a kissed him on the cheek, and entered the room.

Jaune smiled at this and went to find his other friends.

* * *

Yang watched her sister come in, and looked at the floor.

It was going to awkward for the next few days. But Ruby seemed in good spirits, and gave the impression of having gotten over the issue already.

"I got you guys something." She said in a cheerful tone that made Yang think she had gotten over it.

"You didn't have to do that." Yang started, but shut up as her sister handed her a box, and she gave Thor a bag.

"Whatever, just open them!" She was clearly excited.

Yang smiled at her sister's enthusiasm and opened the box to find a new pair of sunglasses. They looked like her old aviators, but more expensive. "Thank you Ruby." She reached out an arm to hug her sister "I love them."

Thor pulled something long and red out of his bag. Opening it up, Yang saw it was a cloak like Ruby's.

"I thought, well, after see what you wore when you transformed, you might- "Ruby was cut off by Thor catching her in a bone-crushing huge.

"I love it." He said, releasing her and putting it on. "Now we match!" he ruffled her hair at this comment, and while Ruby pulled away, she grinned wildly at the same time.

* * *

Jaune went back to his room, his face still hot from embarrassment. He'd calmed himself down a bit, but he really didn't want to run into Yang until things had calmed down. Thor had handled the situation so casually that it was almost funny. But he doubted Yang's feeling were the same.

As he entered the room he shared with Nora and Ren, he noticed both reading on their shared bed.

"Hey guys, I've got some stuff for you." HE said as he walked in.

"Ohh, what is it?" Nora asked jumping off the bed.

"Here." He handed the boxes to them. "Ruby picked them out."

Nora opened her package and pulled out a bottle of maple syrup. It was in a glass bottle and looked more like a bottle of wine than syrup. Jaune knew it was a syrup used for mixing drinks, and had an alcoholic content.

Ruby either hadn't noticed this fact, or hadn't cared, and he didn't want to burst her bubble when she had bought it, and truth be told, he didn't think Nora would have cared for the difference anyway.

"Ooo." Nora said as she looked at the bottle.

Ren opened his box and found a bottle of shampoo and another of conditioner. They both looked rather expensive. "How did she afford these things?" He asked Jaune.

"With the money, we all got paid for our part in the defense."

"Ahh, that's right." Ren said, having completely forgotten about the money. Truth was he didn't much care one way or the other, he didn't want to be a hunter for the payday, he wanted to help other's and kill Grimm. He suspected that Ruby felt very much the same way, which was why she was so free with the reward she'd been given, and why she was using it for gifts for her friends.

"Well, next time you see her, tell her thank you." Ren said and put his gift away.

"Will do." Jaune said, sitting down on his bed. As he sat on his bed, he eyes became far away.

"You okay?" Ren asked.

"Yeah, it's just, I kind of had an…embarrassing run in back at Ruby's room." He said, some of the color coming back to his face.

"What happened?" Nora said, setting down the bottle on her bedside table.

Jaune's color started to rise again, and didn't seem to want to talk about.

"Come on Jaune!" Nora practically whined, wanting to know what had made him so embarrassed.

"It's just…" he started "Thor and Yang were…" he clearly didn't want to say what he was thinking. It was as if speaking it out loud would somehow make the situation for himself worse. He didn't know if Yang would appreciate him talking about it. He was certain Thor wouldn't care one way or the other, given how he'd handled it afterwards.

Despite fear of running into her right now, he found himself of a mind to agree with Yang on this situation, that it was something that should be a private action that you didn't talk about in polite company.

It didn't matter, Nora and Ren both clearly understood the general idea of what had happened.

Nora grinned, and Ren just shook his head.

Ren spoke first "If I were you, I'd talk to them sooner rather than later. If you put it off, it's just going to get more awkward."

"Yeah, I mean, Thor was fine, but I'm more worried about Yang, you know how she is." Jaune moaned at his own bad luck.

"Yes, and that is even more reason to get this over with and not drag it out." Ren said.

Jaune sighed and made to leave.

"Are you going now?" Nora asked.

"Yeah, I was gonna lay low for a few days, but Ren's right, I better get this over with." Jaune signed, mentally steeling himself for anything.

"Well, if you see Thor, could you tell him I want to talk to him?" Nora said, in a much more subdued tone than he was accustom to from her.

"Sure…any reason why?"

"Just, got a few questions." She said in that same, almost unnerving tone.

"Alright, I'll let him know." He said and left the room.

* * *

Blake and Sun made their way into the building where most of their friends were staying. Weiss had gotten, weird was best way to describe it, and gone off to her own apartment.

But Blake wanted to look at the other book with this other one. She didn't know why, but these books had something that called to her. She didn't know if it was from her extended exposure to the first, or if she was just more sensitive to these things, like when she'd know from the start Thor was atypical.

They got to the room, and knocked on the door. They heard a mild commotion and someone came to the door, quicker than what might have been expected.

Ruby opened the door, and she had a big smile on her face. Her smile died a bit, but she still looked happy. "Hey Blake, you wanna come in?"

"You look a bit disappointed to see me?" She said through a smile as she and Sun came in, waving to Thor and Yang as did so.

"It's not that, I just thought it was Jaune, he shot me a text and said he was on his way over." Ruby said, blushing a bit.

"Ahh." Was all she said in response, and continued into the room. Jaune and Ruby's relationship was one of the funniest things she'd ever witnessed, in a cute way. They were two of the biggest dorks she'd ever meet, and while she used the term affectionately, it didn't make their interactions less awkward.

"I'm actually here to see Thor, and have a look at that book again." She said, pulling out the book she'd taken from the Library vault.

"Blake!" Ruby near shouted "Did you steal that?"

"Sort of?" She said shrugging "But it's really Thor's, right? So, if anything I liberated it."

"Yeah?" Yang's voice called "What about this one?" She waved the first book, smiling as she did so.

"Yeah, I stole that one." She said, seeing no point in lying about it, they knew and she knew it.

"So, you're a cat burglar?" She said, grinning stupidly.

"No." she said in a totally serious face. "By definition, a cat burglar is some who steals by entering a building upper stories, I went through the front door."

Yang smile faded, and she pouted "Ah, you ruined it." She said, smiling a bit as she tossed the book to Blake.

Blake reached out and grabbed it, and placed it on top of the one she'd brought and walked over to the table. "Careful, it's an old book!" she chastised her friend, Yang didn't look remotely abashed. "Well, I think if we look over both them at the same time, we might get a better idea of information inside." Blake said as she sat down.

"But we've been doing that." Ruby said "Thor made notes and we've- "

"I'm not saying that wouldn't work, but it would be better to read it straight from the original source. Maybe the page layout is important, or something hidden in the pages themselves, in hidden ink." She said, trying to pull the top book off the bottom.

It wouldn't budge.

"What the hell?" She said pulling harder.

"What wrong?" Ruby asked, walking over to look.

"They're stuck!" She said grunting to pull them apart. "Did you spill anything on you book or something?"

"Hey!" Yang said, a bit offended "I may not worship books like you, but it doesn't mean I'm careless with them!"

"Well something ... ouch!" Blake cried pulling her hands away, feeling like she'd touched a hot stove.

"What!" Ruby said startled, Sun and Yang standing up to make sure she was okay.

"It's hot!" She said sucking her fingers, pumping Aura into them to heal them.

"Get back." Thor said calmly but sternly.

They all back away and the two stacked book burst into flames.

"No!" Blake said, and tried to run to put it out but Yang and Sun grabbed her.

The fire only burned for a couple seconds, then it dyed out. Instead of ash however was a single book.

Blake made to look at it, but Thor grabbed her arm and said "Wait, I'll do it."

She wanted to look at it, but she thought she might want to let him handle it.

Thor touched it with his prosthetic first, then his organic hand. "It's cool." He said and picked it up.

He didn't open it, not at first, but looked it over.

"Look at this." He said holding it out so they could look at it the bottom of it.

"What?" Ruby said, clearly confused.

"There are pages missing." Blake said, pointing out a gap in the pages, where it looked like someone had pulled near a whole other book's worth of pages out.

Thor passed the book to her and she examined it's cover first. It had the combined look of the other two, leather and woodwork mixed with iron and bronze.

"Here." She said, handing it back to Thor. She wanted to look through it, but thought Thor should have the first look.

"Thank you." He said and opened the book.

* * *

The first thing Thor noticed was the first part of the book had a heading now. It read as "Urd".

He furrowed his brow at this, and using the missing middle pages, he flipped instantly to the other section.

This one also had a heading, it read as "Skuld".

That all but confirmed it in his mind, and he opened the book completely, and looked at the missing section.

"Thor?" Yang finally asked, troubled by the look on his face.

"Urd." He said putting the book on the table, open to the missing section. He muttered "Skuld" then started tapping the exposed spin with his finger "Verdandi."

"You want to tell us what's going on?" Yang finally asked, her voice irritated and scared.

"Past." He said, pointing at the first half of the book, then tapping the second half "Future, more or less." He said "These are the names of the Norns, beings who know the fates of all things, and weave the life of all."

"So…what are you saying?" Blake asked.

"This book, and the one that I assume is this out there, are either created by, or linked to the Norns." Thor said.

Blake had read about the Norns in the first book, and she started connected the dots. "The first one was like a history book, the past." He muttered.

"The other was written in riddles and poems." Thor said "Confusing and vague, just like the knowledge and predicting the future."

"So…" Ruby said speaking up. "What would the third one be like?"

"The present." Thor said rubbing his chin "It may…I don't know, tell the reader of what is happening now." He said with no real certainty.

"So where would it be?" Sun asked.

"Well, if there are only three, and we found the first two in the Kingdoms, in the Capital cities." Blake said "Then Atlas or Vacuo is the most likely choices."

"That's not really all that narrow of a search area." Sun said rubbing the back of his head.

"This isn't a priority now." Thor said, putting the book down. He didn't want to put this on the back burner, but he could feel things were coming closer and closer to some final conflict. He could almost feel it on the wind. "Here." He said handing the book to Blake. "You can borrow this for a while."

Blake took the book and opened it.

* * *

Jaune walked up to his old room and knocked. He thought he'd heard several voices inside. They didn't die down as someone opened the door.

"Hey Jaune." Yang greeted him. She wasn't cold, not exactly, but there was an air of discomfort in her voice. "Come in." She said opening the door.

"Actually, I was hoping to talk to you, in private if possible." He said, seeming to shrink a bit at this.

Yang looked confused, but stepped out of the room and closed the door behind her.

"What is it?" She asked, crossing her arms.

"I just wanted to…say sorry, for earlier, I should have knocked or something." He was now beat red, remembering the embarrassing incident.

Yang herself blushed a little but answered "I know it was an accident Jaune, and I wasn't exactly completely void of responsibility. We should have locked the door or something."

"Still…I'm sorry." He said weakly.

"I know." She sighed, running her hand through her hair. "But I kind of agree with Thor, maybe not totally, but he's right, it's not anything to really be ashamed of, like he said "It's how we all got here", I just wish it wasn't my little sister and her boyfriend who walked in." She sighed again "I can't believe you saw me naked before you saw your girlfriend naked." Yang said, almost laughing then the laugh died in her throat and she glared at him "Right?"

Jaune went pale and gulped "We haven't done anything more than kiss!" He knew better than to try anything with Ruby. Yang would kill him, and he thought Thor and Weiss might not take too kindly to it either, just one of them would destroy him in a fight, he didn't want to make any of them mad.

"Good." She said calming down, and moved onto her next statement"You want to come in? We've got a pretty cool new discovery."

Jaune couldn't help but feel interested, and he still had to tell Thor what Nora had asked him. So, he nodded and Yang lead him into the room.

* * *

Ruby had eavesdropped on the conversation as best she could, but the sound of everyone else in the room talking had caused her to miss some bits and pieces. But when she figured they were close to finishing up, she jumped onto her bed. As she watched as her sister and Jaune entered the room she jumped up to go to Jaune.

"Hey Jaune can we talk outside for a second?"

"Umm, sure I just wanted to- "He was cut off by the much smaller girl pulling him back into the hall.

Yang looked suspicious, and moved to the door, and opened it a crack to listen.

* * *

"Soooo." Ruby started and Jaune really didn't want know where she was going with this. Something about her general mood told him she was up to something.

"Yeeess?" He mimicked her drawn-out version of the word.

"I've been thinking." She cupped her hands behind her back, and was rocking back and forth on her feet.

Jaune didn't like where this was going, he felt he was going to get in trouble some way or another.

"What Ruby?" he asked, his heart racing, knowing he wasn't going to like what came next.

"Well… you know what Thor and Yang were doing?" She said blushing.

Jaune hoped she just wanted to clear the air about, get it off her chest, get the awkwardness that was left over out in the open.

"Do you think, you and me, we could- "

Jaune felt like his heart was thumping in his ear, and like there was no blood in his legs.

When the door burst open, he thought his eardrum might of burst. It only took a second for him to realize it was just Yang.

Even in his frazzled state he realized "Just Yang", was like saying "Just a Tornado" or "Just an Earthquake."

He was expecting her to hammer him in the face, but to his surprise and relief, she just grabbed Ruby and pulled her down the hall, away from him.

They were three or four doors down, when all the strength went out of his legs, and his vision tunneled, and it all went black as he crumpled to the floor in a dead faint.

* * *

"Yang come on!" Ruby whined as her big sister dragged her down the hall. "This is embarrassing!"

"Yeah well, you shouldn't be talking about doing that sort of thing yet!" He finally stopped and pulled her sister in front of her.

"But I thought you said it wasn't a big deal?!" She cried out.

Yang didn't know her sister eavesdropping on her and Jaune, and she might have been upset if she hadn't done it herself.

"Well it's not, for anyone but you." She said frankly, as if she were stating a simple fact. "You're too young."

"I'm sixteen!" she cried, now very clearly upset.

"Yeah, and you won't be ready till you're at least fifty, so that's the end of that, let's go back." She said quickly, and turned hoping to end the conversation so her sister couldn't really a counterpoint.

"How old were you when you had your first time?" Her sister called after her.

Yang stopped dead in her tracks. The truth of the matter was she had only recently been intimate with anyone. But the age difference between her and Ruby was not so large that she could not properly argue that as a point.

But her sister seemed so much younger than her age, it just freaked her out. She was happy she'd finally moved into the "dating" zone, but she didn't want her sister going into anything more "intimate", for a while yet.

"Ruby…" She said much more softly, turning to face her sister "I know you like Jaune…and I think he's…nice." She was having a hard time thinking what to say next, but put her hand on her sister's shoulder "But you shouldn't rush this sort of thing." She knew she wasn't in much of place to talk on the issue, but Ruby and Jaune both were new to the idea of dating in general, and still both still innocent in a lot of ways.

Ruby made of scowl, that came off as more cute than angry, and Yang couldn't help but laugh. "Yang, stop laughing." She whined.

"Just take it slow, okay?" She tried to put as much as she could into those words, because she didn't think she could discuss the issue in detail. She knew a lot of kids Ruby's age, or even younger, already were having sex. But all she could do it try and make sure her sister didn't do something she would regret. And even if she did, she just prayed she used protection.

Ruby just nodded, and Yang patted her on the back "Come on let's head back."

With that the two sisters headed back to their friends.

* * *

"Think he's dead?" Sun asked the room as he nudged Jaune's leg with his foot.

"He's not dead Sun, he just fainted." Blake said, kneeling to check his pulse to make she he wasn't having some kind of episode or going into shock. His pulse was normal, although he'd hit his head hard when he fell, and Blake was sure he was going to have a headache when he woke up.

She stood up and stood next to Thor and Sun, and they just looked at him.

"So, what should we do?" Sun said "Should we wake him up, or will that make him go crazy?"

"That's for sleepwalkers Sun." Blake said exasperated. "I think we just need to put him somewhere until he wakes up on his own."

"Well, I think the floor is as good place as any, good job team!" Sun said and turned to go back into the room.

"Sun." Blake said gruffly and grabbed his shoulder "Help me get him inside."

"Fine" Sun sighed "But I'm gonna complain…a lot."

The three of them picked him up and brought him into the room and laid him on one of the beds, Sun complaining, just as promised, about the dead weight of Jaune's body.

Yang and Ruby came back a few minutes later and Ruby started to wig out.

"Oh, my God! Jaune!" She rushed over to him and started yelling at the other's "What's wrong with him?" She grabbed his arm "Yang! You didn't have to kill him! It wasn't even his idea!"

Yang looked completely bewildered by this, she hadn't even touched him. "Ruby, you saw the whole thing, I didn't lay a hand on him."

"He just fainted Ruby." Thor said calmly. "He should wake up in a bit."

And as he spoke Jaune started to stir. First eye opened his eyes and shook his head.

He groaned and opened his eyes, he looked around the room, saw Yang, and started to yell "Please don't! It wasn't my idea! I wasn't going to agree to it anyway!"

"Jaune, calm down, she's not going to do anything to you." Ruby said stroking his arm.

He calmed down, but still looked scared.

"Umm, so what did you guys find?" He said, trying to get the conversation moving in another direction.

Seemingly glad to have an excuse to do so Blake pulled out a large book, that looked like the one Blake had given Thor.

"Is that the one from the Library? Or is this a new one?" He asked, looking it over.

"Both?" Blake said, as if not sure which answer was correct.

"Huh?" Jaune's voice and face easily conveyed his confusion.

"I got the one from the library, and I don't know how, but it fused with the first." Blake said.

"Like magic?" Jaune asked.

Blake shrugged, she didn't know any other way to explain it, and frankly it was the truth.

"Oh." Jaune said as if suddenly remembering something. "Thor, Nora wants to talk to you."

"Me?" Thor said confused "About what?"

Jaune shrugged "Didn't say what, just she wanted to talk to you."

"Hmmm, alright." Thor said, and turned to leave.

"You're going now?" Jaune asked, a slight surprise in his voice.

"Why not? No time like the present." He said curtly and with that, he left the room.

"Sooo." Sun said, trying to move the conversation on and looked at Jaune "How are you and Ruby doing?"

Blake didn't know why, the tension in the room seemed to grow at thick as tar.

* * *

Thor approached the door the room Ren, Nora and Jaune shared. He knocked and only waited a moment before someone answered.

It was Nora, as if she was expecting him. He supposed she may have been.

"Thor!" She cried in joy, opening the door wider "Come in."

"Jaune said you wished to speak to me?" Thor said as he walked in.

Nora didn't answer the question at first but made a comment on his appearance. " Nice cloak."

"Yes." He said, holding it up "Ruby got it for me."

"I can tell." She said, smiling.

"Yes." He returned her smile "So, what did you want to talk about?"

Nora became uncharacteristically silent, and looked rather bashful. "I was just wondering, if, you know my last name, right?"

Thor nodded, and suddenly thought he had a good idea of what it was about.

"Well, I don't know much about my family, and I was wondering...if you might, know where I come from?" The hope in her voice made his heartache.

"Nora." He started slowly. The truth was he didn't know anything more than she did. Her last name could have been a coincident. He hadn't ever thought much on the matter other than a passing curiosity.

He'd worried something like this would happen. Not with Nora specifically, but with anyone who found out who and what he was. People had expectations that gods held all the answers, and while some, like his father, did, he was not one of them.

He didn't think his people or the Vikings who worshipped them had ever been on this world. True her disposition was that of a Northman, her affinity for lighting, her family name, had made him wonder.

But he didn't have any answers for her that he could give truthfully.

Nora clearly saw the disappointment in his face, and her face fell.

"Nora, I'm sorry that I can't tell you about you're past." He said putting a hand on her shoulder, but an idea came to him "But, I may be able to find out a way to do so."

Nora's eye's widened at this. "Really?! What?"

"Those books, they have some properties that…reveal information, at least in their own way." He said not really sure if this would lead anywhere but continued on "I can't promise anything, but If I can find them all, I may be able to help."

Nora jumped up and hugged him "Thank you Thor!"

He smiled and hugged her back "I can't promise anything, but if you are related to them in any way, I think this could lead to some information.

They broke apart, and Thor thought he saw tears in her eyes.

He'd hoped he's stressed enough there wasn't any promises on his part, but he'd try his best.

* * *

Nora watched as Thor left, and she felt her heart soar. He hadn't promised anything, but the fact that he was willing to make the effort, had touched her.

As Thor left, Ren came back. He'd gone to pick up some food for them and set it down on the table.

"How'd it go?" He asked, clearly wanting to tread as carefully as he could.

"He didn't have any answers." She said "But he might have a lead." She smiled at this.

Ren smiled at her, happy that she might finally have some information on her past.

* * *

Qrow sat in the bar, thinking. Lionheart's unwillingness to hand over the relic was frustrating, but not totally unexpected. But that was only part of the issue anyway.

They still needed to Spring maiden. His sister had her, and they had no real way to retrieve her. Counting himself, his nieces, and their friends and Lionheart, they had nine. Raven had herself, the Maiden, and a whole army of bandits at her disposal.

That would be a hard fight, one that would likely result in the deaths of everyone involved.

His mind wandered back to the hammer, Thor's hammer. If they could just, somehow, harness its power, they could end this once and for all. But Thor was the only one who knew anything about using it, and he was certain it was the destruction of the relic that had facilitated his ability to use it again.

But that clearly wasn't going to happen for a while. Frankly, he'd let Thor smash all the relics if he could, they weren't doing humanity any good locked up like they were, and they were only attracting trouble.

But it was beyond him to let Thor do so. He didn't have access to all of them, the one he did Thor had destroyed.

Which he thought was incredibly odd. He didn't think they could even be destroyed, but then again, he was dealing with a god in mortal form.

That thought seemed to mean something, and for a moment he didn't know what. Then he started to think of the fail-safes guarding the relics. Maybe Thor didn't have to follow them? He could destroy them after all, maybe it was in his power to retrieve them as well.

Standing up, he decided to go find the god of thunder.

* * *

Weiss liked to think she was a person who didn't let personal setbacks stop her from going about her day. Yet here she was, just sitting, sulking in her room, because she wasn't dating anyone.

She knew it was ridiculous, childish even. But the feelings were still there. What made it all the more frustrating as it seemed to be more focused on the fact Jaune was now dating Ruby. She didn't know that should annoy her so much, even make her jealous.

She's turned down Jaune countless time, she shouldn't be mad he moved on. She should be relieved, knowing his interests should be turned elseward.

Ruby was her partner, and she didn't know if that was making it worse, or if it was something else.

She thought it might be the fact that in some way, both were replacing her in some manner. That she was losing important in two people's lives where she thought her position was fixed at least somewhat firmly.

These were not thoughts she wanted to dwell on. She needed to try and get herself back into a normal mood. She'd been distant from her friends, and she didn't want that. She wanted to be better than she was before, and she wasn't make great strides to that.

Standing up she left the room, intent on making more connections.

* * *

As she walked briskly to where she knew most of her friends were staying, Jaune and Ruby included, she noticed the weather was starting to turn nasty.

She picked up the pace, not wanting to get caught in the rain. As she turned a corner, she ran into someone and went straight on her backside.

"I'm sorry." She started to say profusely, embarrassed at her own carelessness. But as she looked up, she saw a hand reaching out to her face. She reached out for it, and it pulled her to her feet quite easily.

She finally saw the face of the person she'd run into. He was a tall, slight man, about her age. He had long black hair slicked back, very blue eyes and a very handsome face. He was wearing a very nice green three-piece suit, which she admired for a moment.

"It's quite alright, it was as much my fault as yours, more I'd say." His voice was gentle, with the vague hint of some accent. "Where were, you going in such a hurry?" He asked politely.

"I was, just going to meet my friends." She said, with still embarrassed over the incident, which was something she considered more of something Ruby would do, not her.

"Ahh, well I won't keep you then." He smiled and bowed and turned to leave.

Weiss didn't know what, but called after him "Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?" It was the clumsiest way she could to ask someone out, someone she didn't know at all, but to hell with it, a lot of people did this sort of thing all the time. "Like…dinner or something?"

He turned to look at her, smiled and walked back. "Why, that would lovely." He said, pulling out his scroll. "When and where?"

Weiss thought on it for a moment, "There is this one place, 'The North Dragon', do you know it?"

"Indeed, I do." He started typing something into his scroll. "The time?" he inquired.

She thought on this a moment. "Saturday, four o'clock?"

"Very good." He said "So you then Miss Schnee." He said then turned and continued on his way.

She smiled and continued on her own way. It felt good to try and move on to try and do something new. But something didn't feel right. She walked on for some time before she realized what it was. She didn't think she'd actually told this man her name, but he knew it…and that brought out another realization. She hadn't asked him.

She slammed the heel of her palm into her forehead. "You dolt", she muttered to herself. That was going to be incredibly awkward come Saturday. Him knowing her name wasn't exactly odd, she was quite famous due to her shows and family. She might have thought him a stalker if he hadn't seemed content to go on his way.

But now she was feeling a slight paranoia come over her, which she wasn't sure if it was warranted or not.

At any rate, she decided to go on Saturday, if he was some sort of creeper, she wanted to feel him out. If he wasn't, well she'd at least have a night out. But he had seemed...oddly alluring in his own way. It was crazy, they barely spoke and just agreed to meet up on Saturday, but still, he didn't leave her thoughts easily. She supposed that might be a cause for concern, but she didn't feel threatened by him.

It was crazy, but he gave off sense of safety.

Pushing these thoughts to the back of her mind, she continued to meet her friends.

* * *

Watts sat watching the Grimm continue to swell, it was close.

"Lionheart, do you still hear me?" He said into his scroll.

"Yes." A voice resigned to its fate said.

"Have you tested my means of retrieving the relic yet?"

"No, With Qrow and his team here, I dare not try until I can get them out of the city." The voice quavered a but over the scroll signal.

'Coward' was all he could think, but there was no helping it for now. He didn't want to risk exposure if he didn't have to.

"Luckily for you, I have a distraction in the works. It will be coming in the next few days, I dare say they will all be preoccupied them, just do it when it happens, am I clear?"

"What is the distraction?" Lionheart's voice came over the scroll, clearly scared of what might befall his city. He was still on edge after the Wendo attack, and was worried for his people. Luckily, Arthur had managed to avoid Lionheart knowing he was in any way involved.

As far as Lionheart was concerned, it was a White Fang attack with controlled Grimm. Lionheart had of course been suspicious, given what he knew about Salem, and Arthur had only barely managed to convince him that if one person could control the Grimm, then there may be others who could as well.

It was only the Headmasters fear and desire for what Arthur had promised him that had made the deception even remotely possible.

To spar his city, it was what he was most concerned about, and if he hadn't wanted it so badly, and been so frazzled and scared from the past years' experience, Arthur knew he wouldn't of had a chance of convincing him.

But his semblance had also helped a great deal in that regard. Where it not for all these factors, Arthur was sure these plans would have been ruined by now.

"Just be ready when it comes." He said, and hung up his scroll.

He looked at the giant Grimm as it wailed again, the middle of its body now swollen beyond what he would have thought possible.

Eventfully It cried out one last time, raising its head into the air, then in thumped on the ground, clearly dead.

Then it's body burst open, and a tall humanoid figure stepped out. It was covered in the bony plates of the Grimm, but also piece of the machine it was built around showed up in its limbs. The head looked vaguely like a helmet, and it red eyes glowed like embers, but its mouth seemed be constantly opened, and heat waves rose off its body, and especially out of its mouth.

IT stood fifty feet tall, and as it walked, he felt the tremors in the ground from its movement.

It was a rough prototype, he'd have to refine the process later, but it would serve its purpose.

It looked at him, with a face that couldn't show expression.

He said one word.

"Go."

* * *

 **AN: Okay, Read and Review.**


	15. Ice Cold

**AN: Okay Potential spoilers for anyone who hasn't watch Vol. 5 of RWBY. I'm not copying the story line, but elements or there from it.**

 **Also, I'd like to thank RustedThunder, DragFire and AceSpeedNinjia. For their reviews. I appreciate them more than you could ever know.**

 **Still looking for a Beta Reader, if anyone is interested or knows anyone.**

 **Well here's the next chapter.**

* * *

 **Ice Cold**

* * *

When Weiss arrived at the room, it was more crowded than she would of thought. Which was odd, she should have known who would be here, and who wouldn't. She supposed it was just having them all crammed into a room that was only meant to really house two people.

Thor was in the room, his size made him immediately noticeable among their circle of friends. Nora and Ren weren't present either, but she thought that might be a good thing. If they showed up, along with Thor, whom she was certain would return sooner, rather than later given he slept here, they wouldn't be able to move.

As she hung out at the door, she went unnoticed. The all seemed interested on something, passing it around. It may be the book again, but she'd of thought that at this point, interested would have faded.

Ruby noticed her first.

"Weiss!" She cried and ran over, pulling on her arm. "You've got to see this, it's so cool!"

She didn't fight it, knowing her partner at this point. It would be easier to just let her show her what she wanted.

But as she got near the rest of the group, she noticed it was indeed a book. But not the one Blake had been carrying.

"Is this the one from the Library?" She asked, not sure if she wanted to know the answer.

The looks from her friends told her it wasn't a normal.

The story was explained to her, and while she had witness a good deal of "magic" recently, she still felt a bit weird at thinking what they had said, had happened. She felt like she was being pranked, but she knew truly that wasn't the case.

She didn't know if it was just a life of distrust she never managed to shake, or she was still coping with the reality of what the world had in it.

Instead of voicing any of these ideas, she just asked to look at the book, and started looking through the sections in the part Thor had previously translated, and something immediately caught her eye.

"I thought this part was written in runes, why is it in English?" She asked, a bit confused.

"Don't know." Yang responded, "But in the Library, if you put blood on it, it translated it, maybe Blake burning her hand on it did the same thing?"

Weiss shrugged, it wasn't important at any rate, not now. She started reading from it for the first time in a long time. She didn't know what suddenly drew her in again, but her mood had been elevated a bit, feeling she was moving beyond her limited scope of relationships.

She loved all of these people, rather, dearly, but she felt she should be making connection beyond those she worked and lived with. They were her friends, but still, she didn't have a wider circle of friends, and she had always wished she had.

But she continued to read. Some of the things in the "future" section, made sense now. But that didn't really help in determining what would happen. It wasn't much use if you could only realize what it meant after the fact.

But she was still confused and bit worried about the parts that referred to the "Wendo" or "Eaters of the Dead". That Grimm type was new, incredibly new, yet they shared many similarities with the creatures described here. The names didn't matter so much as the traits they shared, after all the names were derived from this book.

But that they matched traits so closely, and were unknown until now, she didn't have a clue what that meant, or even if it meant anything really, but she felt it did.

"Weiss? You okay?" A voice broke her from her reading.

She looked around to see Ruby a few inches away from her, and the rest of her friends looking at her. Well, she didn't know if they were looking at her or trying to read the book, but she still asked "What?"

"Kind of got that thousand-yard star there for a second princes." Yang said. "You okay?"

"Yes." She said quickly "Just interested in the book." Which was true, but not truly the whole depth of what she was thinking. "I wanted to see if there was anything new." Which was also true.

They seemed to accept this, but the concern still lingered in their eyes, she could see.

"You…okay?" Ruby asked, hesitantly.

"Yes…I'm just a bit distracted."

"With what?" Jaune asked, innocently yet still showing curiosity.

"Nothing, just…something that happened on the way here." She said curtly.

She didn't notice, as she was to fixed on looking at the book. But Yang and Sun were grinning at each other, Jaune and Ruby were smiling as if they knew some sort of secret. Truthfully, they didn't, but knew that Yang and Sun would make it known soon.

"Soooo…what exactly did happen?" Yang said moving nearer Weiss.

Weiss felt her pulse quicken, for no real reason other than she was not comfortable with Yang's attitude. Sun seemed to make to take a step towards her, but a look from her made him stop and step back.

"It wasn't…" she didn't know why she was even bothering to avoid it. Other than the teasing she might get from Yang. "I just meet someone on the way here, that's all." She said, trying to make it sound as small as possible, hoping to cut Yang off.

"Yeah…more information?" Yang pushed.

She still instinctively wanted to avoid the question, but it wasn't going to be possible with her friends, Yang at least.

And they'd find out sooner or later, she didn't plan to hide it anyway. "I just…" she paused to try figure out the best way to word it "have a date on Saturday, it's not a big deal."

That felt surprisingly good, especially as she saw the surprise in Jaune and Ruby's face. The other's smiled and as predicted Yang was clearly ready to jump on the topic.

"Yang, please, I'm not in the mood for the teasing or the wordplay." She sighed, knowing it wouldn't help.

"Okay." Was the only response she got, and that surprised Weiss.

She looked at Yang as if expecting something else, but no puns, jokes or teasing. They sat in silence for a moment, before Yang spoke again, but it wasn't at her expense. Well at least no intentionally.

"So, who is he?" She asked calmly.

"I just ran into him on the street and we talked a bit." She said, not mentioning that it was about a literal statement she could offer. "He asked me out on Saturday, and I agreed." A lie, but she felt like if they knew she'd asked out someone she'd just meet, they might think her…weak in some way.

"What's his name?" Ruby asked, in tone that seemed far too suspicious for the situation.

"I…don't know." She muttered. She was embarrassed to admit it, but it was her own fault.

"What do you mean you don't" know?" Yang said confused "You didn't ask?"

"He was in a hurry, I was in a hurry…" She defended.

"But you still had time to agree to a date?" Yang was grinning again.

Weiss sighed and had a feeling she was going to be getting an earful of what she had desperately hoped to avoid.

* * *

The walk back to the room was one Thor didn't much care for. Sometimes he liked time to think to himself. But now he felt more mysteries, with Nora, he did wonder if there was a connection. He didn't truly think so, but there was maybe something to it.

A raid horn broke him out of his thoughts. His scroll buzzed and a city-wide notice was called to all available hunters to return to the bridge.

Another raid? But the Wendo were all dead, or enough of them were that they shouldn't be able to mount a significant fight force.

Was this perhaps something else? Either way, he didn't have a working weapon Jarnbjorn was at the school and still needed to be fixed. He wasn't expecting another raid so soon. Even the White Fang had been obliterated in the attack, at least as far the ones in the area anyway.

It didn't matter now, he'd have to find some sort of substitute weapons in the meantime. Which still meant going back to the school.

He ran as fast as he could, keeping his ears open. He didn't hear the calls of the Wendo, and while he didn't have a good look at the site of the assembly, he didn't think he saw fog.

As he came upon the school, he didn't bother going to his room. He knew the others wouldn't be there, they'd either be at the bridge on heading to it. He'd meet them there.

He ran to the armory, and looked over the weapons available. Nothing a trained hunter would actually use, nothing was as refined or powerful as crafted weapon and no combination weapons. These were more meant for general practice or possible training droids.

He grabbed a long sword and a mace. No dust, not that it mattered, none of these weapons were dust compatible.

He ran out as fast as he could, and as he did, the people of the city seem totally at their ease. They kept chatting as if the warning alarm hadn't sounded.

He ignored it for now and ran to the bridge. Many hunters were already assembled. He soon caught sight of Yang, her head of golden hair sticking out like a sore thumb.

"Yang!" He called, and ran to meet them.

They all greeted him, Yang hugged him, and he asked "What's the situation? More Grimm?"

"I honestly don't know, but look." Yang said pointing to the far end of the bridge. There was indeed fog, but unlike past events, it was much over a much smaller area, and seemed, thicker than before.

"What do you think?" Thor asked them all in general.

"Could be the last of Wendo." Jaune put forth "One final attack? Trying do what they can to weaken the last resistance."

"Could be juvenile Shriekers." Ruby added, reading Crescent Rose.

"No." Thor said, "This is different, listen."

They all did, and it was silent, none of the variations of Shriekers were quite unless they were dead. But they still heard something. A thudding sound that seemed like footsteps of some giant man.

The Fog advanced to the break in the bridge and suddenly stopped. Thor stared into it, to try and catch what was in it. He thought he spotted something for a moment, but then it faded. The mist continued to grow, but didn't advance towards them, it grew wider and taller.

This continued on few minutes, only making everyone more tense. Then Thor spotted a disturbance that seemed to shoot up through the mist.

He realized what it was almost too late.

"Move!" He shouted, and he and all he friend did so, as did most of the hunters. But one unlucky soul was crushed under the weight of one of the biggest Grimm Thor had ever seen.

It was in the shape of a human man, but the size of a five-story building. The bony white plates of the Grimm covered its body, the black of the body only visible through these gaps.

The face looked hollow, and he spied the glowing red eyes deep inside. But he felt there was more to this thing.

The first attack came from a hunter Thor didn't know, but the man leapt through the air and tried to bring down a sword near as large as him, attempting to try and sever the Grimm's arm or maybe to try and cut it in half, but Thor never saw what he was planning, as the Grimm turned and fired a blast from its hollow face and vaporized the hunter, his sword falling to the ground.

"Holy shit?" He heard someone from the group of hunter yell, and Thor understood the sentiment. A completely fresh hunter had just been killed in one attack, and another, whom everyone else seemed to of forgotten about, was crushed beneath it.

The silence only lasted a moment before every long-range weapon opened fire. Bullet's bouncing off its shell, and explosives impacting and exploding violently.

It didn't even phase it as it slowly marched forward and fired another blast, killing three more hunters.

Thor took his sword and threw it end over end at the Grimm, and the landed point first and promptly snapped in half.

He threw the mace next, to similar effect and ran to pick up one of the remaining spears from the defense, tipped with silver steel.

"No matter how tough, this should do it." He thought and ran around the Grimm's blindside and charged the Grimm from behind and thrust the point between the gaps, and…nothing happened.

It didn't glow or burn like the other Grimm. Instead, it swung a first and shattered the steel shaft and there Thor to the ground.

As he rolled to his feet, he saw it charging another blast. Before he could reach, something blitzed him in the side and threw him out of the way.

They both tumbled to the ground and Thor realized it was Ruby.

"Thank you." He said getting to his feet as quickly as possible, pulling Ruby up with him.

"Does the metal not work on it?" Ruby asked as the Grimm turned its attention to another group that was firing on it.

"It doesn't appear so." He mumbled. He was in a bind, he did not have the appropriate equipment to fight this thing, the weapons he'd brought were useless, which was why he threw them and now the Silver-steel wasn't working.

"What do we do now?" Ruby asked as Thor started to move back to the fight.

"I have no I idea." He said and did the only thing he could, call the lighting.

* * *

Lionheart thought pensively in the elevator that descended into the hidden levels of his school. This had to be what Watt's was talking about, the alert level was at one of the highest he'd ever seen.

But he was filled with doubt. Doubt if Watts machine would work, what might happen if it didn't, and doubts that if he was even doing the right thing.

But he steeled himself. This was the only course of action now, especially after the Wendo attack. The city was in a bad place, and while it hadn't been great before the attack, it had actually been pretty bad, the whole city was now on the edge of collapse.

There were nowhere near enough hunters in the city, even on the one choke point, to stop another major attack, divine intervention aside.

If it weren't for the just that fact in the last battle, nor would the city of fallen, but with his sudden appearance, the city's morale had been boosted to point the Grimm were leaving them more or less alone.

But he knew that it just an instance was not likely to happen again. He understood the circumstances on how it had happened, and knew it was not reliable.

To save his people, he needed to work with his sworn enemy, and while it turned his stomach, he needed to swallow his pride and do it.

He approached the vault, and the special lock, that needed the Spring Maiden's power, normally, to unlock it.

But Watts had told him this machine could do the trick. He didn't ask the specifics, knowing he wouldn't understand them even if he did. But he'd been told this was like a lock decoder, it cycled different energies to try and replicate the Maiden's Aura enough to unlock it.

Watts had studied the Fall Maiden's power and used that as a base, but this was still the first time it would actually be tested.

The device looked like a suitcase, but when it opened, what looked a like a video projector popped out and started to project…something onto the wall.

He watched at it worked, not really sure what he was hoping to happen.

* * *

The fight was going badly, and Weiss knew that if something didn't change soon, they'd be dead. This thing was…terrifying. Her knight had been blown to pieces by it, and the other attacks didn't seem to affect it.

Thor had blasted it with as much lighting as she'd ever seen him do without his hammer, the magic one or the one he'd made.

That seemed to slow it down, but it only seemed to stun it for a moment or two.

She scanned the area looking for something that they could use. Her eye's wandered to the bridge, and thought that their best chance was to try and throw it into the Canyon.

"Thor! Nora! Yang!" She called over the sounds of battle. They were the best bet to do it, they were the physically strongest.

Her friend looked to her, and after a moment rushed over.

"What is it Weiss?" Nora asked, panting slightly "Are you hurt?"

"No, nothing like that." She said hastily "Do you three think you could pull that thing off the bridge?"

They looked at each other, clearly not sure, but Thor responded "Yes, I think if the others can drive it nearer the edge, we could pull it off.

"Good, you three stand back and weight, I'll get everyone else to draw it to the bridge."

With that she was off.

* * *

"You think we can knock it off if we hit it all at once?" Nora asked the other two, as she watch their friends and the other hunters draw the Grimm back to the bridge.

"Maybe, but both of you give me your hands." Thor said, extending a hand to each of them. Nora took his hand, and she watched Yang do the same.

"Is this some sort of Viking prayer or something?" Yang asked.

"No." Thor said and lighting course through them both.

Nora watched as Yang went to her knees. She, for her part, felt her power rise.

"Thor! What The hell?!" Yang yelled.

"I'm increasing both of your semblance power, Nora will draw power directly from my lighting, and you will grow stronger from the damage." He said, extending his hand again, to repeat the process.

"Oh." Yang muttered, rubbing her shoulder "Just warn me next time okay?"

"Okay, here it comes again." He said, and another surge of lighting came.

This process went on for ten minutes, or so Nora thought, but she kept her eyes on the battle, and now, the hunters had drawn the Grimm to near the edge of the bridge.

"Let's go!" Nora said as lighting coursed around her, Yang was engulfed in a fiery Aura, and Thor's prosthetic fist was a lighting with lighting.

All three charged the Grimm, and jumped at it.

It wasn't even looking at them when all three slammed into it, and it did topple.

But it was much heavier than any of them had expected, and instead of soaring off the edge it just fell onto it's back.

"Shit!" Yang yelled "Hit it again!"

* * *

Yang made to chare the Grimm, but a hand grabbed her shoulder and pulled her back. She looked up to see Thor.

"Thor what the hell!" she shouted.

He didn't say anything and just pointed. She looked and saw the Grimm wasn't getting up, instead it looked like it was jerking and spasming.

Then lighting radiated out of it, and soon another bolt came from the heavens, and crashed onto it in a blinding light, so bright she had to cover her eye's.

Once she thought it was safe to look again, she saw the body of the Grimm fading into smoke.

"What the hell happened?" she asked no one in particular, just thinking out loud.

"There." Thor said pointing to where the Grimm lay "What was there last time we were here?"

Yang had to think for a moment, and remembered "Your hammer." She said finally "But would it do that to a Grimm just from landing on it?"

"Mjolnir is a holy item, creates of darkness can't stand actual contact with it."

Yang decided to take his word for it, because something else was getting her attention. And the attention of many of the other hunters.

This Grimm appears to be fading away, but a metallic skeleton seemed to stay behind.

All the remaining hunters approached and eventually saw a machine underneath the Grimm flesh.

No one had ever seen anything like it before, a merger of Grimm and Machine, that was starting to cause quite the commotion.

* * *

Lionheart looked at her scroll as he got an update from the battle. The hunters had killed the Grimm, which he wasn't at all surprised by. The thing clearly was only meant to serve as a distraction, it probably didn't have any real hope of winning.

Lionheart's problem was the dame machine still hadn't cracked the vault. He was starting to worry now that he might get caught. Qrow would head back immediately to make sure everything was okay.

He figured he had, ten minutes max before Qrow actually got back to the school.

Just as he was getting ready to bug out, he heard the stone grinding on the vault, as it opened.

His heart sank at this. He'd hoped it would fail and he could tell Watts it was beyond his control.

But now it was time, and he walked into the vault.

The relic for Knowledge at on a pedestal in the center. It looked like an old-fashioned quill pen, but he knew it's mundane appearance belied its true nature.

He reached to pick it up, and as soon as he did, he felt a cold chill run down his spine. He then felt like he was drugged, and that nothing mattered.

His arms fell to his side, and he just stared into space. He felt completely at ease in the world, and that everything was going to be just fine.

He heard a voice whisper in his ear "Give it to me.". It was a pleasant voice, and in his thoughts, very trustworthy. He extended his hand with the relic out and felt someone take it. This seemed like the right thing to do, it made him feel good to do it.

"Good." The voice said, "Now leave the room, and lay down on the floor and go to sleep." The voice said.

This seemed a perfectly logical thing for him to do, and in fact he felt tired. He turned to leave the vault and thought he might have heard someone walking behind him. He started to turn to look, but the voice came again "eye's forward." He obliged.

As he got into the hall, he lay down and started to sleep, but he heard one more directions from the voice as he faded to sleep "You will forget everything from the time you exited the elevator in your sleep." It said.

That seemed just fine to him, as he slipped off to sleep.

* * *

The remains of the Grimm, or rather the machine beneath it, were being carted off to where ever in the city would handle.

Thor for his part approached the hammer. It had saved them, by accident, but still, it had done it again. He reached down a gripped the hammer and pulled.

It didn't budge, but he didn't expect it to move, nothing had changed.

But still, he wondered what would come of this fight. Close to a dozen hunters had been killed in this attack. The fact was the city was losing fighting force in the forms of hunters.

The traditional soldiers were going to have to make up the difference, not anywhere near as powerful, but much easier to come by.

Conscription was a likely thing in the future. The pure number of people in the city might actually make that useful, but more than anything, the city needed a proper defense, the silver-steel had worked to some degree, but he couldn't help but feel it wasn't nearly livening up to it's potential. He knew that was in part due to the fact what had been used was something that could be put up quickly and still work. But now that there was some breathing room, he was sure the Council would come up with a more advanced version.

But the underlying problems were still there. Not enough hunters, or any real defensive force. He imagined that defensive buildings were going to be commissioned sooner or later.

* * *

Qrow made his way to the underground base in Haven, Lionheart hadn't been answering his calls, and now he was worried. Everything was going wrong it seemed, and now Lionheart just seemed to fall off the grid for the past few hours, no one knew where he was, and this was the only place Qrow could think of where he might be, at least where no one would know where he was.

The elevator opened and he rushed out down the hall, and that's when he saw Lionheart face down on the floor.

"Shit!" He shouted and ran to his friend and checked his pulse. He breathed a sigh of relief, he was just unconscious. "Leo." He said shaking him "Wake up." He shook him some more and looked around and saw, as his heart dropped into his stomach, the vault was open.

He stopped trying to wake up Lionheart and ran into the vault, and sure enough, it was empty.

Lionheart groaned as he started to rise, and Qrow ran to him.

"Leo! What happened here?!" He near shouted.

"What?" Leo said groggily.

"The relic, where is it?"

"What?" he said again, almost like he was drugged.

Qrow grunted in frustration, he shouldn't even need to ask, there was only one way the vault could have been opened. The Spring Maiden had been here, and that meant his sisters involvement.

That made what needed to be done, all the pressing.

* * *

Lionheart couldn't remember what had actually happened from the time he got off the elevator to when Qrow had woken him up. But he had decided to act as if he couldn't remember the past 24 hours. The machine he'd used to open the vault was gone, so whatever happened between when he got off the elevator to when he was woken up, someone, Watts most likely, had recovered it.

But now he was missing a part of his memory, and as soon as he was able to do so safely, he'd have to contact Watts and try and connect the dots.

He didn't know why Watts would incapacitate him like he had, and not kill him, but in truth he didn't really understand the man all that well.

He'd have to wait until Qrow left, then he's contact the Doctor.

* * *

Arthur had waited long enough. He'd been expecting contact from Lionheart long before now. He'd contact him on his own, and pulled out his scroll.

He dialed in the information for Lionheart and it wasn't long before he got a response.

A groggy voice came in over the call "Hello?"

"Lionheart, where are you? Do you have the relic?" He said, much more aggressively than he intended to.

Silence just came over the call and eventually Arthur spoke again "Are you still there?"

"Yes…but…I mean…you don't have it already?"

Watts felt an unfamiliar sensation run down his spine. He recognized it surprise and fear. He hadn't had cause to feel that in a long time.

"Explain." Was all he said, still trying to get his head around the idea.

Lionheart didn't explain right away but he clearly knew not to keep him waiting "The last thing I remember was going down the elevator with your machine. When I woke up, the vault was open, the relic was gone and I just assumed-"

"Enough!" Arthur shouted into his scroll, Lionheart listened without hesitation. "I'll be stopping in to see you in a short while, be ready to explain."

He shut his scroll off, and pulled out the book, and opened it to the page he knew covered the relics.

His heart rate slowed, as he saw that the relic was still intact. But here is where the problem with the book came it.

It only gave general information, not precise. It told him the relic was still in the city. It showed up on a fairly primitive map, but it looked like it was somewhere in the northern end of the city.

He signed as he closed the book. At least it was still in the city, but now he'd have to try and track it down. He could at least assume his device had worked, if it had been the Spring Maiden, he was certain it would have left the city by now.

That meant some other party was privy to the information of the relics, and now had one. Salem had none, and the Huntsmen had the other two. This was not good, and if he didn't get something, even information on what was going on, he was sure he'd be killed for his failure.

* * *

The attack of the Mecha-Grimm, as the media had taken to calling it, had solidified in Jaune's mind that there was an enemy controlling the Grimm. This was not exactly surprising, but to have confirmation, was scary.

But despite the fact this Grimm had killed several fully trained hunters, the people were not in a panic. The news of it being killed by a massive bolt of lightning had made its way into the news and the various networks were quick to claim the savior of the Wendo attack had struck down the Grimm.

Jaune knew it was, in a way, technically true. But it had been due to dumb luck it had fallen on the hammer in the first place.

He was getting scared, and that's all there was to it right now. The Wendo had nearly overwhelmed them, and this new Grimm-machine hybrid had killed several hunters without much effort.

The city felt safe when it really shouldn't. But telling the truth would only draw more Grimm in, and while he didn't like the idea of the city being complacent, it was in its own bizarre way, one of the best safeguards right now.

He knew something was coming, from who, he didn't know, but he had a feeling that soon, very soon, they would be on the move again.

* * *

Weiss could only think of how empty her apartment was now. The battle had wiped her both physically and mentally, and now he was socially devoid of human contact.

She was going to go insane at this rate. She needed some level of constant interaction, a roommate or something. She saw her friends during the day, but being alone at night, that seem a hundred times worse than being home alone in the day. The quiet and the dark, just seemed to amplify it all.

She was reminded again of her…lack of a relationship, compared to all her friends.

But she pushed these thoughts, that seemed to never leave her alone for long, and that worried her.

It seemed almost pathological on her part to never leave it alone in her head.

But in this moment, she just felt tired and wanted to sleep. She climbed into her bed and tried to fall asleep. Her body was exhausted but her mind just wouldn't shut down.

She looked at the clock. It was 9:15. She closed her eyes and rolled on her side and tried to drift off, but she couldn't. Too many things on her mind, and not just her social life, but the affairs of the world, and her own family issues.

For whatever reason, that was where her mind decided to go, her family. Her battle with the Wendo, during then she had thought of all the things she wished she had said and done to try and fix the issues she had with all of them.

Now that death wasn't staring her down, those thoughts seemed much less appealing. While she did want those things, the idea of what she'd have to do to achieve it wasn't pleasant. Her father in particular, sometimes she hated him.

But she loved him too, she could remember a few times, when she was very young, when he'd seemed like the greatest man in the world to her. But as she got older, she saw a much darker side to him. She didn't know if it was she was able to see more of what he was, or if he was just being driven into a harsher mindset by the ever-increasing White Fang attacks. It didn't help that the violent shift in White Fang tactics happened in that same time.

Her heart told her the truth was somewhere in the middle, that the attacks had aggravated some underlying character flaws.

But still, he was her father, even if right now it didn't feel that way. She was constantly worried that he'd send someone to retrieve her.

She sighed at her own thoughts and looked at the clock again. It read 10:15. Her heart jumped at that, the idea she had just spent an hour thinking of family issues, and it had only felt like a couple minutes.

She knew this was not going to be a good night.

* * *

Qrow knew that going after his sister would be hard. As of right now, he could count on nine huntsmen, or Huntsman in training, to come with him on such an attack. But that wouldn't be enough, not against his sister, the Spring Maiden, and however many bandits she had with her.

Lionheart had made this a point when he discussed it. They'd have to get help from the council, but Huntsman were getting rarer in Mistral. But this needed to be done, the relic had to be recovered. He didn't know what his sister would do with, and in truth, he didn't know what this, or any of relics really did.

But it couldn't be good, that much he knew. But he saw one silver lining to this whole situation. One relic was gone for good. That meant that Salem couldn't reunite them all, and gain the power of all four. The four together were far beyond then individuals.

At least that part of her plan was foiled beyond repair, and he smiled at the thought. He'd have given anything to see her face once she realized she'd never attain godhood like she wanted.

Then he remembered Thor, and actually started laughing. He'd love for her to learn her ascension was out of reach forever from an actual deity. That would be just too good.

* * *

Thor lifted his lifted his finished ax. He'd decided to stay with the simpler plan, but had built a new vest, but was to provided dust he could mix with his semblance for more variety in his powers and to extend them. But it didn't have nearly the mechanical intricacies, this did not interact with his weapon at all.

The new blade had the remains of relic, and he didn't really know what that would do, but the faint spark of the divine energy in it could still be felt, by him at least.

Now, with everything in his arsenal back in working order and then some, he felt like a weight was off his shoulders. At least now, if another attack came, of they got a mission, he was ready, at least as much as he could be.

Holstering the ax back into its sling in his back, he decided he was feeling tired and needed to sleep. He'd spent a good deal of energy at the battle and had come straight here to finish his equipment, do in no small part to his lack of equipment at the fight.

But it was catching up with him now, and he yawned, scratching the back of his head. He felt like a good night sleep would be, at this moment, the greatest thing in the world.

* * *

Well, the day was here. Weiss felt more nerves than she would of thought. She knew part of it was that this was more or less a stranger she was meeting. The other was, she embarrassed to admit, she had to ask the boy his name.

She was not looking forward to that, but it would be rude to not show up, and one of the traits she'd been instilled with was to avoid rudeness. She'd just explain the situation, that she'd just forgotten to ask, and given he hadn't either, she was hoping it might be more of a funny joke than anything else.

But wondering wouldn't do her any good. She got ready, and once she was presentable enough for the restaurant, as high end as it was, she set off to meet her date.

* * *

She saw him, waiting outside, in the same suit, or at least a similar one. His hair was perfectly combed back, and he looked impossibly elegant.

He spotted her shortly after, and a smile broke his face as he approached her.

"I'm glad you decided to show up." He said, with a voice that just calmed her mood.

Weiss didn't know why she felt her cheeks flush at this, but she assumed it was an impending question.

"Thank you." She said, demurely, hiding her own embarrassment. She wanted to avoid the awkwardness of the inevitable, but knew that it would come up sooner rather than later.

"I'm sorry." She said, not being able to hide her face flushing red. "But I don't believe I ever got your name." she felt completely embarrassed.

But he just smiled at her, and she felt confused at this, but still waited for his response.

"I was wondering when you'd ask." He said smiling at her. All she could assume was he was aware of this lapse in information since they had last meet.

"I just…" she tried to say, but petered off, it didn't matter as he continued.

"Gunnar Golmen." he said, still smiling. "Miss Schnee." He added still smiling.

"Well…there's that, out of the way." She said trying to sound as nonchalant about it as she could. "But how did you know who I was?" she asked hoping to turn the conversation away for what she'd done. She had a pretty good idea of how he did know her, but she just wanted to move on from her own embarrassing moment.

"Well, I thought that would be clear." His voice just seemed to soothe her, and she had no idea why. But she didn't think too much on it and just listened to him. "You are quite famous, your shows, your family."

That was as much as she had expected, and frankly was happy it wasn't anything less…savory.

But she didn't know if it wasn't, not for sure, but so far, he seemed alright.

* * *

Dinner was going well, at least she thought so. The food was good, not the best she ever had, not even close, but an admirable attempt.

But Gunner as so engaging, she thought she could be eating car tires and still have fun. He was far more…refined, then all her friends. He spoke eloquently, smoothly and calmly, and he his choice of topics were far worldlier than what she'd expect her friends to talk about.

"So…" She finally asked, "Are you from Mistral?"

"Oh my, no." He said smiling. That was another thing, he never stopped smiling, and that seemed oddly familiar to her. "I'm from much further north."

"Oh…like…Atlas?" She said, now feeling the first hints of paranoia, that he was here to bring her home.

"No, not that far." He said, taking a bite of his food "I'm from an independent region, we aren't part of the kingdoms."

"Oh, I see." She said, taking a bite of her own meal. She'd heard of these types of settlements, they weren't very common, but they did exist. "So, what brings you to Mistral?"

"I'm…looking for someone." He said before taking a sip of his drink.

"I guess we have that in common." She said smiling at him.

"I see, have you found them yet?"

"I meet up with them almost as soon as I got here." She said. "Who are you looking for?"

"I'm just trying to find my brother. He's gone off on his own, and I'm trying to sort out some family matters with him." He said, finishing off his dinner, wiping his mouth on his napkin, and placing it next to his plate.

"How do you know he's here?" She worried that she might be overstepping her bounds on the matter, but her curiosity was pulling her in.

"Just some reports." He said taking another sip of his drink. She took that as to mean he didn't want to discuss the issue.

"Well, I hope you find him." She said simply.

* * *

They stood outside the restaurant, and chatted for a few minutes. Weiss had enjoyed herself, and would like to see him again. But she wanted to see if the feeling was mutual, and if he would ask her again.

"I had a lovely evening." Gunner said to her "I would hope, you'd allow me to reciprocate?"

There it was, and he'd said it in such a casual way, she didn't immediately respond.

He stared at her for a second before she said "Of course, When and where?"

He smiled "Well, I did enjoy the food here, but how about I make you something? Here." He handed her a slip of paper to her. It had an address on it, which she assumed was his apartment or pulled out his scroll and started typing in it "I own the building and my apartment is above the office." He said, still smiling "How does next Saturday work for you?"

"Yes." She said quickly "That will be fine."

"Good, I look forward to seeing you then." Her took her hand and kissed it, then strode away.

Weiss was feeling good about how the night had gone.

She turned to walk back to her apartment, but as she turned around Ruby was looking her dead in the eyes.

She shrieked and nearly feel backward and only thanked providence that Gunner was gone and hadn't seen this display.

"Ruby!" She gasped, holding her chest "What are you doing?!"

Her partner didn't seem at abashed at the situation. "I was just seeing how your date went." She said.

"Well, it went fine." Weiss said, brushing herself off. "But how did you get here just it ended." She thought she knew the answer.

"I just sort of…followed you." Ruby said, now starting to show signs of being uncomfortable.

"Of course you did." Weiss sighed, but to her own surprise, she wasn't mad. She just felt calm after the whole night, and was in a pretty forgiving mood.

Ruby seemed to be waiting for some sort and angry rant, but when none came she continued speaking. "So…do you like him?"

Typical of Ruby, to assume one date was enough to accurately judge these things. "I enjoyed his company, and we will be meeting again, that is all I can say for now."

Ruby looked disappointed, as if expecting more information, but there just wasn't anything more to say.

"It's late Ruby, go back to your room, we'll talk tomorrow." She said, and started to head back to her apartment.

"Okay, see you tomorrow." Ruby said, and she left as well.

* * *

Loki walked into his apartment, and once the door was closed, he took his jacket off and undid his tie.

The night had gone about as well as he could have expected. He had endured himself to the Schnee girl, the one who the most emotionally vulnerable, and that was one step closer to where he wanted to be.

He knew Thor had saved the city, and he'd gathered from what he could from his time at Beacon, this girl was one of his friends.

The trick here was getting close to him, without him being aware of his presence. He didn't dare directly confront him at this time, their history would mean his brother would likely try to kill him on sight, and he had no doubts of who would come out ahead in a direct fight.

But for now, he was content to leave his brother to his own plans, partially because he didn't know much more than him. But he'd been smart enough not to use his real name when interacting with the people of this world.

He'd fabricated a name and backstory, which from what he could tell, his brother hadn't bothered to do. He seemed to at best just omit information.

But he wasn't as good at deception as he was. Even the power this world has imparted to him by virtue of his semblance fit with his skill set.

It wasn't perfect, but when he used it properly, it was truly a marvelous thing to have.

He strode over to his desk, and opened the top drawer. Inside was a lock box which he pulled out. He opened it and pulled out the quill. This was the relic, one of them anyway. He could feel it's divine energy. He just didn't know how to access it...yet.

He planned on using the next few days to try an unlock its power, and see what it could do on its own without the other's. He had the machine as well, and the beauty of it was it looked like a normal briefcase, he could keep it out in the open without it raising suspicion.

Things were looking up on this front.

* * *

Lionheart sat at his desk, fear rushing through him. was coming to see him, and he didn't know what to tell him. Not only did he not have a clue where the relic was, but possibly worst, the machine was gone, so whoever had knocked him out, had taken it.

As he thought, the Door to his office opened, and in the Doctor walked.

"What happened?" Watts said with no preamble, not pretended pleasantries.

"The same things I already said." Lionheart said, trying to sound braver than he felt. "I woke up and everything was gone."

"So." He began "There is nothing you can tell me?"

"Yes." Lionheart said, and was hoping in some way thing might mean the end of their dealings.

"Hmmm." Watts said pacing the rooms. "Tell me Leo, do you remember what my semblance is?"

"Something to do with the bio-electrical signals, I sorry I can't recall the exacts." He said, starting to feel nervous.

"You are close, but the point being, one of the abilities it gives me, I can generally tell when someone is lying." He approached Lionheart and was only a foot away from him now. "That's why I believe you when you say what you are telling me is the truth."

Leo felt relief wash over him, and he realized he was standing, and decided to sit down. "Well, thank you for that."

"And it also means you are more of a loss end." Watts said coolly.

"What?"

Watts quickly punched him in the chest, and he felt a sudden pain in his chest and run down his left arm. He gripped his chest and rolled out of his chair onto the floor.

"Goodbye professor." Watts said and turned to leave.

Lionheart reached out to Watts, not sure if he was asking for help or trying to choke the man. It was an anemic effort, and soon the world faded from view and he blacked out.

* * *

Qrow watched the news feed, and he it was a busy news day. The attack was still big news, with the giant bolt of lightning that killed the Grimm being attributed to Thor, though not by name.

But the biggest story of the day was the death of Haven Academy Headmaster Leonardo Lionheart. He'd had a massive heart attack, and was found dead in his office by Qrow himself earlier this morning. It was clear when he found him that it was all over, and he called the police and an ambulance, but he knew that it was all a formality.

The idea was right now it was a heart attack, and while them timing seemed far too coincidental, he wasn't ready to rule it out.

But this was a huge complication for them, Lionheart was their best bet in getting the support of the council, now he was gone.

Qrow felt a little callous thinking of the man like that, but in truth, they hadn't known each other very well, and their relationship was more professional than anything else. And he hadn't impressed Qrow recently with his attitude and handling of the school, it was under his watch the relic was lost.

Their chances of mounting a proper assault on Raven would now take much longer to put together.

But he had a feeling time was most certainly not on their side.

* * *

Arthur Watts had on and only one goal now, to retrieve the relic from whoever it was that stole it. The Spring wasn't even needed now that it was out. It was out and floating somewhere in the northern end of the city.

He thought he might be able to make a device to track it, but he didn't know where to start looking in how to track it. But it must have a unique energy source of some kind, there were many things like that in the world. So, it may be as simple as scanning or tracking unknown energy signals.

That might take a few days, but then an idea hit him. If the thief had taken his invention, he didn't need to track the relic, just his invention. It was a unique piece of equipment not found anywhere else in the world, a prototype, and it had clearly worked.

It could be tracked, he knew that. He wasn't set up to do so at the moment, but he knew it would be much quicker to solve that problem than trying to find an energy signal he didn't know the first thing about.

He'd find it sooner rather than later. And with confirmation his invention worked, along with the relic, he thought Salem may be forgiving enough. Add to that he tied up a loose end, he may just survive the loss of the first relic.

* * *

"You ever feel like we're getting complacent?" Jaune asked Ruby.

"How do you mean?" She asked form her position next to him on the couch.

"I mean, I feel like we've just kind of been…hanging out for weeks now, not making any real progress towards what we came here to do."

"But we've fought those Grimm, and that one big one, how are we just 'hanging around'?".

"I don't mean that we aren't doing things, I mean more like…we know about this bigger issue, and the people we came looking for are part of it, but now we're just waiting for Qrow to give us the go-ahead to do anything." He tried to hide his frustration, but he thought a little bit of it came through in his voice.

"But you heard what Uncle Qrow said." She replied, and he could hear her desire to defend her Uncle. "We have to wait for support, we won't stand a chance on our own."

He knew that was true, but still he felt this was taking longer than it should, and with Lionheart dying of a heart attack, he knew it was going to take longer. But still, he felt it should have been faster than this. But maybe he just didn't understand what was needed to really get this sort of operation.

He knew that he in fact didn't, but still, he wondered.

"I know we need help." He said, "But still, it's taking longer than I would of thought." He said softly.

"Let's not talk about this…" she said, "You know Weiss was on a date, tonight right?" Her voice clearly telling him she was trying to change the subject, and he felt alright doing that.

"Yeah, I know you followed her, which I have to say, may not have been best idea." He said

"Yeah, I know that know." She huffed, blushing a little "But still, you're not… a little jealous?"

"Why would I be?" He asked genuinely confused.

"Well." She said before stopping "I know you used to like her, like a lot."

There it was, and in a way, he understood it. But he'd moved on from that hang up a while ago. "Not for a long time Ruby." He started "I mean, yeah, I liked her, but I eventually decided that if she wasn't going to give me the time of day, then I was going to stop putting myself out there." He said, deciding not to put the reality out there.

The truth was he had still liked her far beyond the time he stopped asking her out constantly, but was tired of getting himself shot down. He didn't need any more blows to his confidence than what he was getting on a daily basis at the time.

"It's just." Ruby started "I feel sort of like…well…you know." Her voice got quieter and she looked at the floor.

"What?" He asked, genuinely confused.

"I mean." She said clearly having an incredibly hard time voicing her feelings on the issue.

"What?" he said with his voice starting to show concern.

"I'm not as much of a "lady" as she is." She finally said, making air quotes with her fingers on the "lady" part.

"Yeah that's what I like about you." He replied trying to put her insecurities at rest. He wouldn't ever claim to understand the inner workings of another person's mind, but he knew what it felt like to feel inadequate compared to someone else. "You're different, but it's a good thing."

Her face seemed to calm relax at this, but she still looked mildly distressed "But, I mean, she's so smart and cultured."

"Yeah." He cut her off "And you are incredibly fight savvy and a whiz with the weapons." He said, "You aren't Weiss, but that's not a bad thing, you have your own personality and gifts, and you should be proud of that."

She smiled at this "So, you aren't upset she'd dating someone else?"

In truth, he was a bit irritated. Not because he still wanted to date Weiss, that had passed. But that she had agreed to go out with a guy she had literally run into on the street and she hadn't even given him the time of day. It was more a blow to his confidence or ego, whatever it was called, but the idea of her dating someone, in the general idea, idea didn't bother him.

"No, I mean, back at school I would be, but I've moved past that since we went on our journey." He decided that now was a good time, if there ever was one, to tell her how he started to feel for her. "I didn't realize it at the time, but while we were getting her, I just sort of…started to like you…more than a friend." He said.

"Yeah?" Her face no longer had the blushing, but now looking curious "In what way?"

"I just sort of…did." He said "After Pyrrha…I just." He didn't know how to really explain his feeling, but decided to try. "I guess I didn't think anyone would ever love me the way she did, but still, I couldn't help but be drawn to your positive attitude and friendliness, and…I don't know, I just sort of, started to like you." It was lame, and in no way conveying his proper feelings, but he just couldn't manage to voice it properly.

She just laughed at this, or giggled more like.

He didn't think of this as malicious, but it finally prompted a question he never had in his head. One that should have come up before now he supposed, given she had been the one to initiate their relationship.

"So, when did you decide you liked me?" he asked with sly smile.

Ruby blushed at this and looked back at the floor. She clammed up for a minute before answering.

"Sort of…since…we meet?" she said posing the final part of the statement as a question.

That caught him offhand, had it been that long she had liked him? "But…" he said more than bit confused "that long?"

"Yeah?" she said, the flush coming to her face.

"But…" he started, a bit confused. "Why didn't you say anything?" his voice more than a bit confused.

"It was just…" she started "You liked Weiss, and Pyrrha clearly liked you." Her face flushing more.

He got it, while he didn't fully agree with the idea she was following, he got it.

"Well." He said, starting off, "Things worked out the way they did for a reason." His tone didn't fully convey the idea he truly believed this statement, in terms of fate, but that was how it had happened. "We are here now, and I think…this is pretty great." He said and leaned in to kiss her on the check.

As he moved back from her, her face was flushing again, and he couldn't help but remember that while she was less than two years younger than him, in some ways her mentality was still years younger.

That always had him concerned, her mixture of age-appropriate behavior, sometimes of an even older person, and the behavior of a much younger person. It made him uncomfortable at times, but more often, he just felt a genuine unadulterated affection for her. He'd even call it love, and he did love her, in ways that weren't strictly romantic. He cared for her beyond that, and the fact he didn't want to follow her idea to try and have sex, was enough in his mind to show him he liked her beyond that idea.

She was looking at him in a way that told him that he had spent too much time thinking and he knew he had to responded.

He pulled her close and whispered in her ear. "You are the one I'm with." He thought this was a weak argument and so he continued "And wouldn't want to be with anyone else." He kissed the side of her head, and getting a mouth full of hair for it, but didn't care.

As they separated, he saw her face, and her eyes full of tears, but a smile broad across her face.

"Thanks for that." Ruby said, looking him dead in the eyes. "I wouldn't be with anyone else either."

After that, Ruby's actions became much more aggressive. She kissed him on the mouth, and war fa more intimate than he'd ever been. Her lounge worked its way into his mouth, and whipped around his mouth.

He wanted to stop, at least in his logical part of his mind. But this felt so good to him, that he just let it slide.

But as the intensity of the interactions grew, he found himself carrying less. But the passion grew and he felt his care lesson and he didn't care. But then he felt her grip his shirt with both hands and pulled him close to her in a powerful passion.

Her kisses became much for forceful, and he didn't know how to respond. But this felt so good, he kissed her back with equal passion.

It wasn't until she started to undo he the button and zipper to his jeans that he started to really think on the issue.

But frankly at that point, he didn't' care.

* * *

 **AN: Please Read and Review.**


	16. Lord of Lies

**AN: New Chapter,**

 **As always thank you to everyone who reviewed Acekileler, MrSlendy69, Nathaniel19851911, MistahKillJoy and the Guest reviewer.**

 **MistahKillJoy, I'm glad you called it, what it is, I'm not sure, but I'm happy for you.**

 **This story is coming to a head soon. I don't know how many more chapters I'll have, but I know the climax is coming soon. I want to say three or four more chapters, but I'm not 100% sure.**

 **After that, either this story will be moved to the Cross-over section, or more ideally, I'll edit it with a Beta-reader and make some refinements to the story.**

 **Please Review, I won't say read because if you made it this far into it, you probably do that already.**

* * *

Lord of Lies

* * *

Weiss looked at the food, and didn't think she'd ever had an eating experience like this before. The food looked amazing, the presentation was divine. It smelled wonderful too, but that wasn't the unusual part. It was her cook was sitting across from her, eating with her.

She watched as Gunner took a bit and she soon followed suit. It was amazing, she hadn't ever tasted food this good outside of her home, and she'd never eaten with her cook before.

"This is wonderful." She said before taking another bite. "Where did you learn to cook like this?" She asked as she took a sip of her drink.

"Oh, I just pick things up here and there, you know." He said smiling at her.

No, she didn't, but she was enjoying herself very much and didn't feel like following that line of discussion, so she responded, "Of course I do." And took another bite.

"So, do tell me about your friends?" Gunner said just before he took a sip of his drink.

"Oh, well…" she stumbled "Well, I meet them back at Beacon." She began "I have to say that, at first I didn't care much for them." She felt her stomach turn at this point, but she knew it was true, she was dismissive of them all when she met them. She hated that about herself, but it was true. "But…they grew on me."

"I'd dare say so." He said smiling at her "You traveled across the world find them, that is a strong bond." He took another bite of his food.

True, she loved them all, even those she hadn't been especially close to. But this was a private territory she wasn't ready to go into, at least not yet.

She'd never believed in "Love at first sight", but this felt close. She'd liked Neptune, but that hadn't gone anywhere. Jaune hadn't left her alone for weeks on end, and she had never reciprocated the feelings. But at the end of the day, those two were the closest she had a real romantic relationship or interest, which wasn't close at all.

But this…this felt real to her in a way that she didn't know was possible. She'd only had three interactions with Gunner, but she felt drawn to the man. He was cultured, smart and much quieter than the people she typically hung out with.

But it was more than that. She felt it in her gut, maybe not lifelong love, but a companion she could connect with.

But she wanted to play her cards close to the chest. She didn't want to tell him anything that may be the result teenage hormones, which she hated to admit to, but may be part of her infatuation.

"So." She stated, thinking of a subject "Do you live on your own?" it wasn't a strong topic of conversation, but decent one.

"Why yes." He said, wiping his mouth with his napkin. "I live here alone."

The raised another question in her mind. One that needed quite a bit of discretion to ask in a proper manner.

"What do you do for a living?" she finally decided on. This didn't seem like a question that could be offensive.

"Oh, I don't work, really." He said, sipping his drink "I more work with stocks and investments."

"Oh, you seem sort of young to be doing that."

He just smiled. "You are never too young to seize opportunity."

* * *

"So how many Hunters has your Uncle convinced to join us?" Thor asked Yang as they walked down the street.

"I don't know, I mean, I get the impression their area few, but I don't think it's that many." She sighed. She'd enjoyed the time "off" but now she was getting restless. She knew that more hunters were needed, and they were in short supply. Still, the idea had taken root in her mind, not only that she wanted to take action, but who they were going after.

She'd given up on her mother, more or less, months ago. She'd told herself she wasn't worth it, and she felt that was correct. But now the old desires were rising in her, and she wanted to find her.

And she knew, more or less, where she was and it was pretty close by.

"Maybe we should leave it with the bandits." Thor suggested, and Yang felt her jaw drop before she could think of a response.

"Are you nuts? They can't keep it, they're a bunch of thieves and murderers. "She said, and stopped walking to look him in the face.

"And more or less a functional army." Thor said.

"So, we shouldn't try because they are too strong?" She couldn't believe this. Thor was one of the most battle crazed people she'd ever meet, along with one of the bravest. She couldn't believe he'd give up like this.

"No, I mean it may be safer with them than here." Thor said, keeping his tone even. "Mistral has been attacked twice since we've arrived, and it keeps losing hunters and military personnel."

She started to get what he was saying. She didn't agree at all, but she sort of saw the logic in it. The city was in bad shape in terms of its defense. But she just couldn't stand the idea of leaving the relic with a gang of bandits. So, she decided to pose another question.

"Why don't you just destroy this one like the one Ozpin had." The seemed like a good idea to her. These things weren't doing anyone any good just tucked away, and it gave Thor a power boost that pretty much won every fight.

He just shrugged and started walking again "Maybe, but I don't know, I didn't even know what I was doing the first time I did it."

"Didn't your dad tell you to do it?" She asked him as she followed him now not sure she understood the explanation he'd given. "I mean, he's like the god of wisdom or knowledge or something, wouldn't he know better?"

"He would, but I'm not sure it was him, I don't know if it was vision or me just hallucinating, I was dying at the time."

"But it worked, so…it had to be real."

"Maybe, but I can feel the energy in those relics, so it may not have been a real vision. Just my mind trying anything to survive."

Yang didn't buy that, they'd been having visions because of him. She was certain Odin had in some way influenced him.

But she didn't want to push the issue. She thought his uncertainty was do more to his own personal issues with his father than anything.

"Come on." She said while she tilted her head to gesture down the street. "Let's get something to eat."

* * *

Jaune sighed as he watched the news. More of the same, which was nothing new. Lionheart's death was still being covered, if only with mild interest from the media. The second attack, from the Mech-Grimm, as it had been dubbed, was also a fairly prominent story. The bolt of lightning that killed it was be attributed to Thor, which was sort of right.

That was a plus he guessed, the feeling of safety was now super high. The city was certain they had some kind of protector keeping them safe. The speculation on why he hadn't shown up at the beginning of the fights and just ended them was another story of interest.

The most popular idea was he didn't live in the city and it took him time to arrive to finish the fights.

They were wrong, but it was helping in the short term. But the news coverage had made him wonder why this Grimm hadn't been affected by the silver steel. He didn't know it was that it was part machine or something else, but the idea of it no longer working scared him.

It had seemed like such a game changer, and if it was made useless well that wasn't good.

He felt mentally drained thinking about these things, and ultimately decided to let it go for now. He couldn't do anything about it right now and he had plans with Ruby.

* * *

"Jaune." Ruby very nearly whined as they walked down the street. "Where are we going?"

Jaune had said he was taking her somewhere, but he hadn't said where. She like surprises, but she also hated being kept waiting for too long.

"Just up here." He said and as they turned the corner, Ruby caught sight of their destination.

"I know most girls like flowers and candy." Jaune said, rubbing the back of his head "But I know you aren't like most girls, so I figured…" he gestured at the building.

It was a weapons shop. One Ruby hadn't ever seen before, and that was one thing she loved about Jaune, he understood she didn't fit the "typical" idea of a girl.

She smiled and said, "Well let's head in." and took his hand and took the lead. Then she thought "How would you know what most girls like anyway? You know like half a dozen and none of them are typical."

The look on his face made her smile as she watched him puzzle this out, then he responded, "I have seven sisters, Ruby…"

"Oh…yeah." That had slipped her mind somehow, he really didn't talk much about his family. That was weird, because when he did, he spoke fondly of them.

Deciding that was a topic for later, she asked "What do you think Weiss is doing on her date?"

She was testing the water's here, she knew what he said about his feelings for Weiss, but she still wondered. She hated that feeling, it somehow felt like she didn't trust him. Which simply wasn't true. She understood this as signs of her own insecurities, but she wasn't sure how else to handle this.

"Well, she said that Gunner guy was actually cooking." Jaune said as they crossed threshold into the store "I'm guessing they're just talking, getting to know each other."

She didn't see any sign of irritation or distress and that made her feel better. He may have been discussing the weather.

"Well, let's look around, there's this new ammo I want to check out." She said pulling him behind her.

* * *

"I trust everything was acceptable." Gunner said as he poured her a glass of wine.

It was a dark red, which she didn't prefer, but sipped politely. "I was excellent, thank you." She said truthfully. He had actually been an excellent cook, and wonderful company. Even the wine, which she didn't care for, tasted good now.

She looked around his apartment, and noticed what looked like a piano in the corner. After looking at it for a few more seconds, she realized it wasn't, but rather a harpsichord.

She looked back to Gunner and saw he'd noticed. "Do you play?" She asked taking another sip.

"A bit." He responded "You?"

"Not really, I mean, I know how, but I prefer to sing than play." She felt like she was imposing a bit but decided to ask him "could you play something for me?"

"Of course." He stood up and walked over to the harpsichord and pulled the bench out. He placed his hand on the keys and started to play.

The song wasn't one she recognized, but she enjoyed. It was…joyful, and it lifted her spirits even more. He played for a few minutes, then the song slowly ended.

"That was actually quite good." She said, "I'd say you weren't completely honest with me when you said you only played a 'bit' were you?" She this with a smile however, making it clear that she understood he was being modest.

"What can I say?" He said standing up "I've been told I'm a terrible liar." He walked back to towards her and she stood as well.

"I should really be going." She said looking her scroll for the time. She was already out later than she had expected "My friends will be wondering where I am."

"I would quite like to meet them." He said as he walked her to the door and helped her with her jacket.

"I'm sure they'd like to meet you." She felt weird saying that. She this was true and untrue at the same time. Something in the back her mind told her to ignore it for now.

"Well, how about you bring them over next time?" he said as he opened the door for her.

"I'll talk to them and let you know." She said and stood there, smiling at him.

"Very well, I look forward to it." He leaned in and gave her a gentle kiss on the cheek.

She flushed at this a bit, and said "Good night." She said and set off to head home and heard the door close behind her.

* * *

Loki smirked as he closed the door. He had her pretty well enamored and soon he'd be meeting the rest of her little group.

If he was correct, which he knew he was, they were all present at the Bridge when his brother had shown up. They were the only ones who would of seen him up close and possible spoken to him.

He puzzled over this for a while and decided a lacked, private setting with a larger group would yield the most information. He was certain he could get Weiss to talk, but it might seem odd on a one on one date to talk of such things.

He didn't want to risk the her possibly breaking his semblance. It worked best on the unaware and emotionally and mentally vulnerable. Weiss had been all three when they had meet, which was why he'd chosen her, but if he acted weird, his grip could weaken.

Better to foster a more open atmosphere. He actually didn't look forward to it, from what he'd gleaned about Weiss's friends, they weren't overly refined. He understood her to have maybe seven or eight friends. She hadn't told him this much, he figured it out from reports and what little information he gathered on them. Unfortunately, they simply weren't drawing enough interest for him to gather that sort of information from any sort of grapevine.

He had a number and a few names, all of which were her immediate team, but as for the other's, he had some descriptions and the gender. Aside from her own team, there were four boys and another girl.

He supposed it didn't matter, he'd know soon enough. And as he thought of gaining knowledge, his mind wandered back to the relic.

He went to the drawer and pulled out the lockbox and opened it to examine the relic.

None of his tests had revealed anything. Granted he was limited to purely scientific experiments and his ability to really do so on any meaningful scale was limited here. If he just had his sorcery back, he'd have been able to unlock its powers, whatever they may been.

He twirled it between his fingers and tapped it on a notebook on his desk.

It took him a moment to notice that the quill was leaving marks on the paper. That shouldn't have been happening. He'd never put ink in it and it was ancient, anything in it should have dried out.

He pulled the quill across the paper and it left a line, black as the darkest ink he'd ever seen.

He then wrote a simple line 'I am Loki' Was all he wrote and at first it seemed to just be a normal pen. Then following his statement, the words appeared 'of Asgard.'

"Well that is interesting." He mumbled to himself. He then wrote 'Who is Loki'" and waited a moment.

Then the word appeared 'God of Mischief and fire.'

Following this he tried a number of other simple statements and question, along with sentences with missing or misspelled word, and without fail, the rest of the statements appeared and the missing word filled in and the spelling errors corrected.

"I sure how the gods of this world didn't just leave a pen with self-correction magic in it." He mumbled. So far it had been interesting, but nothing beyond that. He needed to see if this thing could go beyond such mundane magic.

He eventually wrote out the question 'Where is my scroll?' and waited to see if it could give him the correct answer. And sure, enough it did, in his left pocket.

"Well, let's see if you can really help me then." He muttered and wrote down 'Where is my brother Thor?'

He waited for the word to appear, and sure enough they did 'Haven academy' was all that appeared.

The puzzled him, that was the school. He'd looked there first when he first came here, certain his brother's love of fighting would have drawn him there. There was chance he's found his way there since he'd last looked, but his show at the bridge made Loki believe that had he been at the school, his identity would be all over the news.

He may have been hiding at the school, but that didn't seem right either. But he could investigate again, and see what was going on after the death of the Headmaster. He hadn't killed the man, but he was glad that at least he didn't have to worry that he might come looking for him.

He had no reason to doubt that his semblance hadn't worked, but still…there was always a chance.

Now there was none. But there was the concern of whoever had killed him. Loki didn't by the reports of the heart attack. At last not completely.

But then he thought of something. Picking up the quill he wrote 'who killed Leonardo Lionheart?'

He waited and 'Dr. Arthur Watts' was the response.

Loki had no idea who that was, but at least he now knew the Headmaster had been murdered rather than dying of natural causes.

If only he had a face to put to the name, and decided to give it a shot.

He wrote 'What does Watts look like?"

This time, instead of words, an image started to appear on the paper, no color other than the black of the ink and white of the paper, but other than that a near photographic image of a man's face.

* * *

As Weiss left the apartment building, she pulled out her scroll and dialed Ruby. She'd promised her that she would let her know once her date was over. This pattern of checking in was becoming more and more common among her circle of friends.

She recognized this as a sign of growing anxiety in the group, the need to make sure everyone was okay. She knew she had picked up on it, and she thought Blake had as well. Other than that, maybe Thor, but the rest of them were doing so without really knowing what was driving the need, at least on a conscious level.

She knew why of course. The world was marching towards something big and possibly disastrous. From the fall of Beacon, up to the recent events at Mistral, things were coming to a head and soon.

But she didn't know how long that would be, only that it would be soon.

"Hello?" She heard Ruby's voice come over her scroll and her heart skipped a beat. She hadn't even realized she put the scroll to her ear.

"Ruby it's Weiss, I'm just checking in, like I promised." She said in a tone of that convey the mundane nature of this task. She heard Ruby talking to someone else and heard her say "It's Weiss".

"How did it go?" Ruby asked.

"Excellent, who are you talking to?" she asked.

"Jaune, but forget that, tell me more, do you like him?"

"Why yes, I think I do." She said, not willing going into more details how she really felt. The truth was it felt foolish and childish to feel as strongly as she did, and didn't want to broadcast it. But now she could get something out of the way. "Ruby, Gunner said he'd like to meet my friends, do you think you and Jaune would like to meet him?"

A shriek came over her scroll so loud she had to pull it away from her ear.

"I'll take that as a yes." Weiss said transferring her scroll to her other ear.

"When! Where?" Ruby said excitedly.

"I'll let you know, I just said I'd ask you guys, he'll set a date."

"Looking forward to it! I'll talk to you later!"

"Alright, talk to you later, bye."

"Bye." Ruby said, and they both hung up.

Well, that was two of her friends at least. Ruby was by far the most excitable, and she figured that the other's reactions wouldn't be nearly as energetic. Yang's may be more irritating, but maybe not. She'd eased up on her teasing in general. It hadn't stopped completely of course, but she'd let up on it since Beacon.

Well, there were still six friends she needed to call and ask.

* * *

"What was that about?" Jane asked Ruby, looking a bit concerned as Ruby's reaction.

"Weiss wants us to meet her boyfriend!" she said in an almost sing-song voice.

"Okay…" he said, not sure what the big deal was. He understood Ruby was happy for her friend, but he thought the reaction was a bit extreme. "I mean, is he like…officially her boyfriend or are they just seeing each other."

"Jaune." She said in a voice that sounded almost like a teacher speaking to an overly excited child who wasn't grasping a lesson. "If there weren't serious, she wouldn't want us to meet him."

"But haven't they only gone out twice?" He asked.

"That we know of." Ruby said in tone that was clearly trying to convey she was onto something.

"But isn't this sort of thing more for like…meeting her parents or family?" He asked. Truth was he didn't really understand the ins and outs of dating all that well. His own dating history was not what he would consider normal, but he didn't think Ruby would know more than him.

"Yeah, normally, but we're all she has." Her voice had a confidence that he didn't understand.

* * *

Ruby joy masked another, more shameful feeling, relief. Weiss getting serious about someone else somehow made her feel better about her relationship with Jaune.

She just didn't feel confident in their relationship, or not as confident as she probably should have been. Next to Pyrrha and Weiss, the girls Jaune like before her, she felt ungainly, weird and unrefined.

She was also younger than either of them, and not nearly as mature, physically or emotionally.

Then there was the fact that she had been there when Pyrrha had died and she felt guilt over it. She knew she shouldn't, she'd done everything in her power to get there in time. But trauma didn't reside in the logical part of the brain, and she knew that.

She didn't dare ask Jaune about it, she feared what his response would be. She knew she should at some point, but she really didn't want to.

She'd do it, soon she thought, but for now she had a nice little distraction in Weiss's new boyfriend and frankly she was interested to meet him.

Weiss was generally cold to outsiders, even to her own team she'd taken a considerable amount of time to warm up to. This guy got her attention for a five-minute encounter and got her to ask him out on a date. Then she'd gone out with him again.

This guy had to have something pretty strong going for him to get her attention like that.

* * *

"I don't want to go." Was all Yang said as she hung up her scroll as she and Thor made their way back to their room.

"What?" Thor said looking at her. "Who was that?"

"Weiss." She sighed "She wants everyone to come to some sort of dinner party to meet her new…well she didn't say boyfriend, but I get the feeling that's what she's thinking."

"What did you say?"

"I said we'd go." She mumbled.

"But you don't want to."

"Not really." She sighed again.

"Why?"

"You know Weiss, she's all proper and neat." Yang said, "And this guy is supposed be like that, at least given what she'd told us." Yang groaned "This is gonna suck."

"Then why did you agree to it?" Thor asked raising his eyebrow.

"Because I know it's going to mean a lot to her." She sighed again "We're going to have to get some formal clothes, we can't go dressed like we normally do."

"No." said sighed himself "We better do that tomorrow, get it out of the way."

* * *

Dr. Watts made last modifications on the tracking device before closing it up. He looked it over to make sure it didn't have any loss parts, it didn't.

It fit in one hand and looked more like out of date scroll than anything else, which was by design, he didn't want to draw unwanted attention to himself.

He turned it on and got no signal, which he also had expected. The relic and his machine were in the northern end of the city, and he knew this tacker wouldn't pick up a signal from this far away, he just wanted to make sure it turned on before he went looking.

The first test being successful, he would now go onto the second phase. He'd recreate the first machine and see if he could pick up a signal from it.

He still had pieces from the first machine's development phase, and he'd piece an approximation together and see if this new device could pick up on it. This shouldn't take more than hour to put together, and once he had that, and tested his tracker the next and final step was to head to the northern end of the city.

* * *

"At the risk of being insensitive to my own race, but I hate wearing a monkey suit." Sun moaned as he worked at his tie.

"Just put up with it for one evening, alright?" Blake said knocking his hands away and fixing his tie. "And stop messing with that."

"Come on it'll be…fun." Ruby said as the six of them walked up to the apartment. The group included Herself, Jaune, Ren, Nora, Sun and Blake. Weiss was already there, helping with whatever she could, which she admitted wasn't much, but the sheer number of people made her feel guilty. Ruby honestly didn't think it would be fun, but she was here for her friend. But that aside, she was interested in meeting the guy.

"Where are Yang and Thor? They don't get to get out of this do they?" Sun muttered, and received a somewhat forceful tap on the back of the head from Blake for the comment.

"Yang needed to fix something on her arm, the fourth and fifth fingers weren't working right, she wanted to tune it up." Blake said, more than a little agitated as Sun's comment "They'll be twenty minutes behind us at most."

"So, what can we expect from this guy?" Jaune spoke up, directing the question to Ruby, hoping to change the subject.

"Really couldn't say, all I know is what Weiss has told me. I mean I trust her, but I mean, we really won't know until we meet him." Ruby said.

They got to the door of the apartment, and they were all surprised that it was on such a nice end of the living spectrum. Had Weiss not told them he was their age, they would have thought she'd been taken in by the charms of an older man.

Ruby stepped forward and knocked.

* * *

"I don't think this is working." Weiss muttered over the cutting board, holding a knife and looking at a mutilated pile of vegetables.

"Let me see." Gunner said as he set down what he was working on. He walked over to her and looked at her work.

She felt embarrassed at her own ineptitude in this task. It should have been easy, she was a master with the sword, but she couldn't handle a kitchen knife.

He stood behind her and gently grasped her hand, his body flushed against her. She felt her face get hot, but he started guiding her hands.

"For this you want to slide the knife back and forth like this." He whispered into her ear while showing her the technique. Where she had been chopping, this slicing motion was far quicker and neater. "Just like that." He said stepping away, as she continued without him. "Good." He said smiling, heading back to his own preparations.

"You know you're pretty good with a knife." She said, now finding the task much easier.

"I've been told that." He said. She couldn't see him, but she thought she could hear the smile on his lips.

"I would really like to learn how you picked all this up." She said as she finished up.

"It's a story that isn't all that interesting." He said as he started to fire the stove. She heard her slicing something else, meat or fish she thought as she caught a glimpse of what he was working on now. "Here." He said, and handed her a bowl with a few ingredients, wet and dry. "Mix that until it's nice and even."

She took the bowl and started to whisk it. "I'd still like to know."

"It's not more complicated than I don't appreciate low quality food, but couldn't afford it, so I learn how to do it myself." He said as he continued to work "Granted ingredients were still hard to come by, but I found I enjoyed it."

He was right, it wasn't complicated.

A knock at the door let her know her friends had arrived.

* * *

As Weiss lead them into the apartment, Ruby marveled at how big it was. It may have been her own cramped living experience lately, but this felt far too big for one person.

It was decorated in a manner that didn't at all feel like a teenager, but more like a small museum. There were artifacts, sculptures and even weapons hung on the wall or displayed on shelves.

Its outer walls were large windows, closer to what you'd expect in a hotel than an apartment.

She thought it looked nice, but it didn't seem right for someone their age to decorate like this, even Weiss didn't when she had a chance to do so back at Beacon.

But the smell of the food, it was wonderful. It was the smell of a fryer like what she often associated with food, it smelled cleaner.

"So. Is this everyone." A voice said from the side and she turned to look. This had to be Gunner, and he looked…she didn't know how to describe it. He looked pleasant, handsome even, but something in his eyes, didn't feel right.

"No." Weiss answered, "Two more will be along shortly."

"Well that's all well and good, the food won't be ready for a few more minutes." He said.

His voice just seemed so pleasant, and calming, Ruby just felt like her feelings of his eye's fade away.

A silence came over the room, and eventually Weiss spoke. "Gunner, why don't you play the song you showed me? I can finish in the kitchen, it's just taking the food off."

Gunner seemed to think on this for a moment, before agreeing "Alright, if you'd all please be seated." He gestured to the table.

The table intimidated Ruby, with everything on it, but she'd muddle through this as well. She wanted a chance to observe this guy.

He went over to what Ruby took for a piano and sat down and started playing something. She'd never heard it before.

* * *

"Okay, I know I'm not one to talk on this sort of thing, but watch your table manner." Yang said to Thor they climbed stairs to the apartment.

Thor snorted at this "I can be civil when it's appropriate you know."

"No, I don't, because the only time I've ever seen you eat anything, the closest to table manners I've ever seen you exhibit was at a burger stand." She sighed "Just don't embarrasses Weiss okay? I think she really like this guy, and she's been down in the dumps lately, I don't want something else to put her in a funk."

"Alright, I'll watch my manners." She said, fixing his tie. "What about you? You aren't worried I'll embarrass you?"

"You embarrass me every day." She said smirking at him as they stood outside the door to the apartment, making sure to convey the joke. But the look on his face looked way too serious, and she thought for a moment she might of upset him. "Thor it was just-"He raised a hand to silence her.

If it weren't for the dead serious expression on his face, she would have been offended but he was clearly onto something else here.

"Listen." He said is a soft voice, not a whisper, but close. "You hear that?"

She listened, and she did hear it. It was music. It sounded like a…harp? No, that wasn't right. But she didn't think that mattered. But she didn't recognize the song either, so she wasn't sure what Thor was getting so worked up about.

* * *

Thor was never a great appreciator of the arts, but some songs on Asgard and Midgard had just become known to him over the years due to popularity.

This one he knew from somewhere, but he couldn't place it. But that wasn't so much the issue as this melody had no business being on this world. Unless someone from Earth was here, or someone who has visited it.

The song was coming from the apartment. As he grasped the doorknob, he recognized the song. It was a popular tune played in winter called "Ode to Joy".

"Thor what's wrong?" Yang asked, her voice portraying agitation.

"Be ready for anything." He said and opened the door without knocking and walked in.

Everyone save Weiss was at the table watching the person playing. They were so intent on watch him, they hadn't noticed Thor and Yang come in.

Then Weiss's voice came from the side and said "Yang? Thor? I didn't hear you knock."

Everyone turned to look at them, and the music stopped.

Thor recognized the person playing and the look on his brother's face would have been funny in other circumstances.

"Oh shit." Was all he said before he reached for something.

* * *

The following events were confusing to all who witnessed them. Weiss noticed Gunner grab something and throw something at Thor, who snatched it out of the air.

She saw it was a knife, and before she could say anything Thor was rushing Gunner grabbing one of the weapons that Gunner decorated his apartment with, an axe that looked several decades out of date. Gunner produced two large daggers, and leaped across the room, over the table at Thor and tackled him to the ground.

She found her voice at this and shouted "Stop!"

This plea fell on deaf ears, and Thor kicked Gunner in the stomach with enough force to throw him clear across the room and through one of the windows with a crash.

Thor leaped to his feet and jumped after Gunner out the window.

* * *

"What the hell!" Yang shouted. "Weiss what is wrong with this guy?!"

Weiss seemed reluctant to answers, her eyes wide, and Yang thought she spotted tears.

She tempered her anger, and put a hand on her friend's shoulder. "Weiss." She began "Are you okay?"

Weiss wiped at her eyes, didn't say anything, and sat on the couch.

Yang didn't know what to say, and looked to her assembled friends. Ruby was the first to get up and walk over to Weiss as sit down next to her, placing a hand on her back, rubbing it gently.

But before anyone could say anything else, someone's yelling was heard from out the window, and Gunner came soaring back into the apartment. He landed on the table and the first the Yang noticed was his tie was gone and his jacket was in tatters.

The next thing she noticed was his hand were tied behind his back.

Thor leaped back in moments later and said, "My friends." As he walked over to Gunner on the table "I'd like you to meet my brother, Loki, god of mischief and lies."

* * *

Loki looked at the assembled group with melancholy. He didn't want his secret out like this. But he might be able to make it out of this with some advantages still intact. He didn't need to tell them about the relic or the machine, or even his theft of it.

All the group before him, with the exception of his brother, looked leery of him. Except Weiss, who had left the room to go into his bedroom with her partner. He's suspected they were close given the conversations he'd had with her.

"So, Brother." Thor said walking up to him, and Loki couldn't help noticing his various injuries. "How did you get here?"

"I'd rather like know how you got those scars brother." Loki response. "Quid pro quo, you know, tell me what happened to you an I'll answer the questions."

"I had an equipment malfunction Loki." Thor said curtly "But tell me how you got here, and I might be more forthcoming."

"I found myself here, close to three years ago." Loki said, staring at his brother "I don't remember what happened what happened before that. I just found myself here in this younger body."

Thor didn't look pleased at this, and Loki guessed this was what he had experienced himself.

"Why don't you let me go?" he said, letting his semblance flow out over his word. "We can figure this out together."

He watched as all the other seemed to consider the idea, but Thor didn't look the least bit moved. He'd expected this. His semblance was powerful, but against someone who thoroughly distrusted him, it would have little to no effect.

"Thor maybe we should-"The one known as Sun started, but Thor raised a hand to silence him.

"He is the god of lies, he could make a snake think it can fly or a stone it can swim, don't listen to him."

"Geez, Thor were not stupid." Sun said defensively.

"That isn't the issue." Thor said, not taking his eyes off his brother. "I mean he can literally make you think what he says is true."

Everyone looked confused except Thor and Loki who both looked irritated.

"Did you figure it out then?" Loki said, sighing. He was certain his brother had managed to figure out his semblance. If he hadn't, well, it wasn't going to do him much good either way, he was caught and Thor would never let him go to do as he pleased.

"You have a semblance, like us all, and if I'm not mistaken, it's you can' convince anyone of your lies." He said.

This was good, as far as Loki was concerned. Thor had gotten pretty close to the truth, but hadn't quite nailed it down. His true semblance was the power of persuasion, convincing people of what he said and making influencing their behavior. It didn't have to be lies, it could be directions, or feeling a certain way, or general commands. He didn't even have to directly command someone verbally, they just had to hear his voice and he could project his intent into them.

But if Thor thought all he could so with his power was lie, then he held a slight advantage. His brother was so set in his way of thinking about him, he doubted he'd pick up on this on his own.

"Correct brother, you know me too well." He smiled, dialing back his semblance. He suspected Thor could almost feel it working on him, but a lighter touch might work to influence him. "But, as I'm sure you know now, if you are onto me, then it really doesn't work." He said with a smile at his brother that projected all his contempt for him.

"Wow, that's freaky." The one called Jaune muttered.

He supposed he was right in that regard, the ability to affect someone's mind was unnerving to most. Many people felt they own head was one of the only places they were truly safe, and any idea of foreign intrusion or influence unnerved most people.

"Wait, if he can make people believe his lies, then how do we know that last part is true?" Nora asked.

There it was, the inability to trust a liar. He understood it of course, who would take a liar's word. He believed humans had a story about a boy and wolf that he rather liked that seemed to follow this line of thought.

"Him." Loki said nodding towards his brother. "He can tell you why, I think."

"His powers didn't work on me, and I've haven't trusted him in a very long time." Thor said, still looking at his brother.

Loki looked over the group, and their faces showing a whole range of emotions. The boy Jaune looked by far the most concerned. Not that he was, but he certainly the showing the most of his unease. This marked him as one of the more inexperienced members, and a likely target to work on.

The two Faunas, the boy and girl, seemed leery and agitated, but masked them better than Jaune. The girl Blake was the more composed of the two, but he thought he sensed a level of animalistic agitation coming off them.

The girl who had question his trustworthiness, Nora, looked by far the most curious, he thought he noticed a slight shift in her step, like she wanted to get closer but thought better of it.

The boy next to her, Ren, was by far the most stoic. He did well to hide his feelings, but Loki had been at this for far too long, and he picked up some emotions. A hint of fear, although the fear of what, he couldn't quite be sure.

But the blonde girl made him feel uneasy, even more so than his brother. She looked livid, and unlike his brother, he didn't know her well enough to try to truly know what to expect or to properly influence her right now. They were all thoroughly distrustful of him now, and his semblance wouldn't work to any effect for the time being. Then there were her eye's, they would flash red occasionally, and that made him uneasy.

But he could get out of this, and put himself in a good position. He didn't need his semblance to be his normal crafty self. He'd become too dependent on it anyway. He was confident he could get ahead of the game with this.

"Well, what are we going to do with him?" Sun said.

"I have an idea." Yang said, and walked away from the group, into Loki's bedroom. Some voice could be heard, but nothing really clear.

Some rummaging around could be heard, and Yang came back out with a large luggage case of his. She unzipped it and smirked at him.

With a sudden realization, he knew what she was thinking. "Please don't." He said in a somewhat plaintive voice.

* * *

Dr. Watts had been searching this portion of the city in a grid pattern until he'd finally picked up on the signal he was looking for. Now it would only be a matter of time. But he must still be cautious, he didn't know who had stolen the relic or what they might be capable of, or if there were more of them.

The sound of shattering glass broke him from his thoughts and down the street he saw two men fighting. The fight didn't last long, the larger of the two quickly overpowered the other, and soon was tying him up with what looked like pieces of their cloths.

He then threw him up into the air, and Watts watched him soar through the window they had apparently broken, which he took to be the sound that had distracted him.

Looking at his tracker, it was telling head in the direction of the two men.

Following the signal, he found that his machine was probably in the building the two men has come from and gone back in.

He headed in, and after walking up and down the stairwell, he determined the floor it was on.

The room was easier to find, but the multitude of voices made him decided not to invade it at the moment. He'd bide him time and come back tomorrow when no one was here, so long as no one knew he was aware of him, he'd take the quieter approach.

He made to leave, and as he did the door opened. A large group of school-aged huntsmen and huntress walked out. He knew they were hunters because he knew who they were. Ruby Rose and her friends. He wasn't surprised to see them involved in this. If he had to guess Qrow had lost trust in Lionheart and taken the relic himself.

But as he watched them go to the opposite stairwell, he noticed the Blonde girl pulling a piece of luggage behind her.

He raised his tracker to see if they were taking his machine with them. They hadn't, but they had taken something.

But the man he'd seen get thrown back into the room wasn't with them. But he could handle one person easily and quietly enough.

As the students left the hall, he made his way back to the door. The lock was no issue, and he was inside in moments.

The apartment had been nice at one point, but it was a mess now, a fight clearly having taken place. But to his surprise, the man he'd seen thrown back in wasn't here.

He could have fled, he wasn't getting along with all those children, and even Watts himself might have fled if facing off against so many huntsmen, even only partially trained ones. He thought he might been able to beat them all, but not after a protracted fight that would cause a great deal of unwanted attention.

But his machine was here, and he suspected the relic was as well. The book had given him a picture of it, it looked like an old-fashioned quill, but that wasn't as useful as may be expected. It would be small, and unless he knew where it was, it would take some time to locate.

But scanning the room quickly, he spotted a familiar suitcase. He walked over to it and picked it up smirking. This had gone as well as be expected.

But now his thoughts turned the relic. He should take this opportunity while he had it. When who ever lived her came back and noticed the device gone, their guard would be up.

He was surprised no police had shown up from the ruckus. But if they hadn't shown up by now, they probably wouldn't.

He'd take some time to investigate, but he couldn't dawdle too much.

He looked behind pictures and furniture and found nothing. He suspected whoever had it would take some sort of measure to keep it safe. They may be limited into how much they could do in this building, but he'd expect at least a lockbox.

He eventually made it over to the desk and opened the drawers. That was when he found the lockbox. Pulling it out, he noticed the electronic lock. He could crack the lock with enough time, but his patients were running thin.

He used his semblance to short the lock out. The box opened and inside, he saw some documents, some money and… a quill pen.

He picked it up, and thought he felt something. He felt a warm sensation run up his arm and into his chest.

That was as close to confirmation he'd ever ask for in this situation. The relic in hand and his device, it was time to go to Salem.

He didn't know what to truly expect, but this was the best situation he could hope for.

* * *

"You sure your Uncle will be okay with us crashing here?" Jaune asked Ruby as they all entered the house Qrow was renting.

"He'll be fine with it." Yang said as she threw the luggage into the middle of the living room, followed by a muffled cry from inside the bag.

"Maybe we should let him out." Nora said, looking at the bag.

"Fine." Yang said as she walked forward and unzipped the bag, and dumped it over, and they all watched Loki roll out onto the floor. Hand and feet bound, and mouth gagged.

"Are we sure this is…like legal?" Jaune asked as they all watch Loki writhe on the floor, trying to get free.

"He's a criminal, were hunters, we can apprehend criminals." Ruby said confidentially.

"We're still in training, and I don't know if he's actually broken any laws." Ren spoke up.

They all got quiet at this, except Thor who walked over to his brother hoisted him up, and threw him into a chair and removed his gag.

"Thank you." Loki gasped out. Thor didn't respond, but instead proceeded to tie his brother to the chair.

"I'm going to call Qrow." Ruby said, pulling out her scroll and walking out of the room.

The rest of them looked at the god of mischief tied to the chair.

"Weill that hold him?" Blake ask, thinking of Thor's strength and how he could have broken the bonds like tissue paper, and wondered if his brother had the same strength. He didn't look powerful, but looks could be deceiving.

"I'm not sure." Thor said. "But, but it'll have to work until we get proper restraints, we'll just have to keep an eye on him."

Loki's eyes scanned them all, and he started to see why he'd been in the bag as long as he was. They were all changed and had their weapons.

"Why am I being treated like this?" he posed the question as much innocents as he could.

"You know why." Thor said.

"I'm afraid I don't." he said, which was at least a bit true. "I haven't committed a crime…here." He said adding the last part, which was true as far as any of them knew.

"You're Loki, that's enough reason." Thor said with not a hint of compassion in his voice. His brother gave him more chances than anyone ever had, and he'd betrayed that more than enough times for him to not trust him. But the other's may be swayed a bit to his side.

"You lied to me." Weiss said, and Loki turned to look at her, and saw a hurt expression in her eye's she was trying to mask with anger.

"About what?" was all he said in response.

"Who you were for starters." Yang answered for her friend.

"Maybe my name, but I've been using that one since I got here, I thought it would fit in better in this society than my own. My brother apparently did not have the same idea." He nodded to Thor and continued "I was simply trying live in this world, as quietly and comfortably as possible."

He saw from the looks on their faces they didn't believe him, and he wondered how much of his past they knew.

Before any more questions could be proposed Ruby came back into the room, looking a little frazzled. "Guy's we need to get ready." Everyone, Loki included, looked at her with questioning expression "Uncle Qrow says we're going after the relic tonight, he's said we got as much support as we're going to get and we are moving out tonight."

"On such short notice!" Weiss almost yelled, and while all eyes were on Ruby, Loki smirked, this may be his chance to get loss. They had a mission, but they'd never bring him or leave him alone.

"We can't just leave Loki alone." Thor said, "I'll stay and watch him."

That was the last person he wanted watching him, Thor was far too suspicious of him for him to be able to influence him. He would at best cause some level of influence, but as soon as Thor recognized he was even considering Loki's words, he'd assume some sort of magic or trickery and gag him again.

"They'll need you." Weiss said, "I'll stay here and watch the little snake."

The rest of groups expressions told him they all thought that was a bad idea. Loki instead of saying anything, started to hum and look at the ceiling. This was one of his weakest ability's, but useful in situations where he didn't want to actually talk.

His power translated through his voice, and as long as he was heard he could influence people with his intent, and his intent now was for them to find some reason to agree with Weiss.

It was far from likely to work, but she was emotionally vulnerable now and was one of the two people in the group he'd like to have watching him.

* * *

Yang did not want to leave Weiss alone with Loki, but she didn't think she was in the right place mentally to be on a field mission, especially one this dangerous.

"I can stay with you and watch him." Jaune spoke up "I'm not going to be much use on this mission, I don't even have a semblance yet."

Yang noticed her sister's eye's go wide and this, and thought she understood Ruby's panic. Weiss was Jaune's first real crush, and she didn't want him alone with her. It was ridiculous, this was watching a god of lies, not a date. It would be like having to watch a bratty kid, only this one could kill you, hardly a romantic atmosphere.

"Jaune, what are you talking about?" Ruby said with panic in her voice "You've gotten so much stronger."

"Yeah…" Jaune started to reply, "But I'm still not close to you guys, not really, and we need to watch this guy, so I'll be more useful here than there." He said not completely masking his sad tone.

"But if you stay than Weiss can come with us then." Ruby said her voice getting higher in pitch.

"I'm not in a state to fight a pitched battle." Weiss said "Besides, I'd like to ask the god of lies some questions."

Ruby couldn't think of anything else and before she knew what was happening Yang was dragging her sister out of the Qrow's house. "We've got to get going, they'll be fine." She said as she pulled her sister out the door.

Loki watched as every one save his brother, Jaune and Weiss vacate the house.

His brother walked to them "Be careful, even if he has no powers, he will try and trick you." And with that Thor left.

The two young hunters looked at him, and he smiled back at them.

* * *

The airfields were humming with activity. A number of Huntsman running to Bullheads, and to Yang's surprise normal soldiers.

She spotted her Uncle and called his name.

He came over in short order and said, "Where are Jaune and Weiss?" he asked.

"We left them with that guy I told you about." Ruby said, in a bit of a melancholy tone.

"You kids picked a bad time to capture a rogue god." Qrow muttered. "Come on, we're hitting the camp in six hours, we need be on a bullhead, I'll explain the plan on the way."

None of them were happy at the sudden departure and quick deployment, but they knew this had to be done.

As they all boarded the bullhead, Qrow spoke up.

"Alright, you kids…and Thor, know where hitting the Bandit's camp my sister is leading. We're expected to face almost a hundred bandits of low-level huntsman skill sets, and maybe a dozen of expert level. My sister and the Spring Maiden are the two most dangerous people in that camp." He said looking at them all. "I'll take my sister, and you kids will handle the standard bandits with the other hunters."

"Wait!" Yang shouted over the Bullhead engine "Why can't we help you against her?"

"You kids are good, but you aren't that good yet…Except you, but I don't really count you." He said gesturing at Thor. "Thor, you are going to go after the Spring Maiden, along with two other hunters I'd trust with my life."

"Why don't you go after her?" Thor ask yelling as well.

"I'm counting on your semblance to disrupt her powers, it's not the same, but you can run interference on her. As for me, I'm counting on family ties to keep her from trying to really kill me." He took out his flask and took a swig.

"Well, in that case I should help you fight my mom." Yang shouted.

"Sorry Yang, but you're not ready for her, but I promise when this is all over, you can ask her whatever you want."

Yang didn't respond, but hunkered down and brooded on the issue.

* * *

Loki looked from Jaune to Weiss, then from Weiss to Jaune. They were just sitting on the couch, staring at him.

These two were the most vulnerable, but together, they'd present a stronger front.

"So…what was such the big event that took most of your friends?" he asked, letting his semblance seep into his words.

Weiss's jaw was clenched shut, glaring at him, but Jaune seemed ready to say something, but thought better of it.

"It's not important." Was all he said.

"Oh, I'd dare say it's very important if my brother wouldn't stay to watch me." He said calmly. He had an idea of what was going on. He knew that Qrow, a huntsman of fame, had been recruiting freelance huntsman's for some sort of mission. He'd combined this with the information he'd stolen from Lionheart's computer during his little excursion into the school during the attack.

He was more tapped into what was going on in the wider world than any of these students watching him, probably more than Qrow was even. He'd been stealing information for his whole time here, that was how he'd found the relic, and how he knew what was going on with Salem.

He knew the Spring Maiden was with a bandit group led by Qrow's sister, and that the Maidens were needed to get the relics, normally anyway.

Had Thor not found him tonight, it would have been too perfect. He was certain they thought the bandit's had the relic, and while he doubted his brother would be killed in a raid like that, but it was a near perfect decoy for his own actions.

"Are they going after the Maiden and relic?" he said.

Both went wide-eyed and Jaune coughed to try and hide his surprise. That was more or less a confirmation of what he was certain he already knew.

"I know about this ordeal you know." He said smiling "I can help you, all of you."

He could see the wanting to believe in their eyes, although in different ways. Jaune wanted answers, clear and cut. Weiss, the poor girl, wanted to see some good in the man she become infatuated with.

He actually felt a bit bad about that. He's really let his semblance run wild on her to gain her trust. The truth was he identified with her a little bit. An overly critical father who favored another sibling and found them replaceable. That was a big reason why she'd fallen so thoroughly into his snare.

The emotions he'd felt ever since he'd found himself here were extremely odd, and much stronger than any he could remember recently in his long life. He suspected it was his younger body and the hormones affecting his mind.

But he'd never been a completely careless or heartless being, despite what many thought of him. The fact was what he'd said earlier was the truth…after a fashion. He had intended to try and live a comfortable and quiet life here, for a while at least. But his old habits had crept back in and he started seeking power, and building tools to deceive and steal.

That was where his money came from, he'd steal information and either sell it or use it to make investments. It was how he found out about the ancient conspiracy and the old war.

"I know where the leader of the Grimm lives." He said leading with a strong piece of information, but not telling them enough for it to be useful to them.

The jumped to their feet and walked to him.

"Where?" Jaune almost yelled grasping his shoulder, shaking him slightly.

"I'm sorry, but my memory doesn't work well when I'm tied up." He said Cooley.

"We aren't untying you." Weiss said with venom in her voice.

"Well, how about I tell you something else and maybe we can learn to trust each other." He said smiling at them.

"You are the god of lies, why would we ever trust you?" Jaune said letting him go.

"Why should you trust the god of thunder?" Loki answered the question with a question of his own.

"Thor is trustworthy, we've known him long enough to know that." Weiss said.

"But you really don't know me, yet you pass judgment on me without any real evidence other than my own brother's words." He said cooley.

"Thor wouldn't lie to us." Jaune said defensively.

"No, I don't think he would, but has he always been a completely reasonable person? I'm sure you both can think of at least one time his temper and emotions got the better of him and he didn't act rationally."

The look on their faces told him he was making headway. He didn't have to know what Thor was up to know his brother.

"Still." Weiss said, "God of lies, not going to listen to you."

"I'm the one god you should trust." He said, not smiling this time, but just looking from one to the other.

"How does that make any sense?" Jaune said in a voice that made Loki think he was truly interested in the argument.

"All humans lie, in some way or another, it's in your nature." He said "And you can control it, can you control or trust a storm?" he said.

Weiss and Jaune looked back and forth at each other. "That…that's not right…" Jaune muttered.

"Is it? Light, dark, storms, death, life, fate, fire, nature all beyond your control." He said, keeping his face serious "Even the other gods of more mundane things, you can't truly control, but you can choose to lie, or tell the truth." He said, pushing the full power of his semblance onto them.

Had he just been saying these things with none of the power he was currently exerting, he doubted it would have had any effect what so ever. Even with his semblance, had it been anyone else in the group it still probably wouldn't have worked. But these two had enough doubts in their heads he'd managed to weasel in enough to get some influence over them.

Now they both looked confused and distressed, which was good, it would make them more vulnerable.

They looked at him and approached him. He smiled at them, but it was wiped off his face as Jaune shoved a piece of cloth into Loki's mouth and tying another rag around his mouth putting the gag back on him.

* * *

Jaune finished tying the rag and walked away from Loki. Thor had been right, he was a troublemaker and he was tired of hearing him talk.

"I'm hungry." He finally said, realizing the evenings meal had been cut short bit Thor's little family spat. "Want me to order a pizza?" he said looking at Weiss.

She looked a bit taken aback at this, before realizing she hadn't eaten either. "Sure." She mumbled.

Jaune pulled out his scroll and dialed the number "What do you want on it?" he asked.

"Whatever you want." She mumbled.

He didn't press her and just ordered a standard pepperoni pizza.

It arrived half an hour later, and they started eating. Jaune looked at Loki, remembering he hadn't eaten anything either, and wondered if he should offer him anything. He squashed the idea because he didn't want to feed him or untie one hand for him. And he liked him gagged.

"What is wrong with me?" He heard Weiss say.

"What are you talking about?" he asked genuinely confused.

"I have terrible taste in men." She muttered.

"Weiss, he's the god of lie's I think you can cut yourself some slack." He said, trying to smile a bit.

"It's not just him, Neptune wouldn't ask me out until someone pushed him to do it, then I never saw him again. Before I went to Beacon, I had a string of 'boyfriends', who I thought liked me, but were just after my family name." she sighed. "Then I learned the wrong lesson from that, and thought that was every boy."

Jaune remembered when he pursued her relentlessly back at Beacon. He didn't know how to feel about what she was saying. She hadn't given him the time of day, but now she was saying she had bad decision-making skills in the area. Maybe he should feel better about that.

"I need a drink." She said standing up and going to the kitchen, and grabbed a bottle of whiskey Qrow kept on the counter.

"Uhh, should you be taking that?" He asked.

"I'll pay him back." She muttered, poring a very generous helping into a glass, then poured a second glass. She picked them up and handed Jaune one. "I'm not drinking alone."

She tilted her glass back and took a good portion of whiskey in one swallow.

Jaune went wide-eyed at this as she lowered the glass, seeing she drank about quarter of the whiskey.

"Drink!" she said in a much louder tone.

He did and it whiskey burned his throat on the way down, and he nearly threw up. He was astonished Weiss hadn't even flinched at her own portion that was much more whiskey.

They went back to the couch as sat down, pretty much ignoring Loki as he watched them.

"You know, you're the only guy who ever tried to get my attention that was probably worth a damn." Weiss muttered.

Jaune was feeling the buzz of the whiskey, and Weiss had drunk more than him and was much smaller. He suspected she was feeling the effects, and much stronger than he was. She took another swig and he followed suit. This one went down easier.

"But I just blew you off, because I just assumed that you were like those other boys." She leaned her head on his shoulder and now he was feeling very uncomfortable.

"Uh, Weiss what are you doing." He asked her as she downed the rest of her drink. "That can't be good." He muttered.

* * *

The camp came into sight of the Bullheads, although it was hard to tell, as there were no light visible and the sun was going down.

"We hit them as hard and fast as we can." Qrow said to them. "Remember your rolls."

With that, they all deployed onto the ground outside the camp and rushed in.

It only took a couple moments to realize something was wrong with the camp. There was damage to the walls and most of the tents were either in tatters or blown away, only the largest one still stood.

But there wasn't a sign of anyone nearby.

"What happened here?" Nora asked as the hunters and soldiers entered and examined the camp.

"An attack." Thor said looking at the ground. He knelt down and examined something "Look." He pointed at the ground and a large hoof print was in the dirt.

As they all looked around, they were countless of the prints in the failing light.

"Wendo." Yang muttered, and Ruby deployed her scythe.

"These are old." Thor said, "Whatever happened here happened some time ago."

"That's why there are no bodies." Ren said, knowing what the Wendo had done when they raided camps or towns.

"How long ago was this attack?" Qrow asked Thor.

"Can't say for sure." He said standing up." But it had to be before the attack on Mistral." He said, "There weren't enough of them left after than to assault this camp."

"You think that's why they stole the relic? To make up the power difference?" Ruby posed.

"We didn't take it." A ragged voice called from the direction of the largest standing tent. Everyone present turned to see a woman limping out of the tent.

Only Qrow truly recognized while Ruby and Yang knew her from a photograph.

"Raven, what happened here." Qrow asked his sister as she limped towards the group.

"Those Grimm came, 'Wendo' I think you call them." She said, her voice haggard. "They had White Fang with them, and one guy, he was really strong, bulldozed over us." She said finally sitting on the ground, Thor noticed she clenched her side, and thought he saw dirty looking bandage on it.

"The Spring Maiden couldn't drive them off?" Ruby asked butting in.

"Didn't get a chance, she was gone when it happened, good luck in that regard I guess." Raven said and started coughing. "I'm guessing she's in the wind now."

"So, you didn't steal the relic?" Qrow said, going down to one knew to talk to his sister at eye level, and he noticed her eyes were bloodshot and she was much paler than normal. She looked sick.

"No." she just said and coughed again. Qrow caught the sight of her blood.

"What happened to you?" he asked.

"One of the bastard got me, but I got away with my semblance. I came back and everyone was gone. Any of the others who were out didn't come back, I've been here on my own since."

Qrow could smell the infection, his sister was dying because she didn't come to him or any of her family for help.

"We're getting you some help." He said picking her up. She struggled weakly, but he loaded her onto a bullhead. "You kids." He shouted then added "and Thor, go with her back to Mistral, we're going to sweep the camp and follow you back."

There was little to no protest, Yang the one most likely to make an issue out of it would want to stay with her mother.

They all climbed aboard and the Bullhead took off.

* * *

"You believe her?" Thor asked Yang over the roar of the engines.

"I mean, not really." She said "Who else could have taken it? I think Qrow thinks the same thing, that's why they're searching the camp."

"Well it's not there." Thor said as he looked the now unconscious Raven "I couldn't sense it, if it was there, I think the White Fang took it."

"That's a whole other can of worms." Yang sighed." But can you really sense if from that far away?"

Thor patted his axe "I can feel the remains of this one from nine blocks away when I'm concentrating on it, and this one has lost most it's power, it's not in the camp."

"So, you can feel them?" Yang asked, "From that far away?"

"If I'm concentrating on it, otherwise I'll only feel it if I touch it. It's like looking for one of the hidden images, I have to actively be trying to locate it."

They sat in silence for the rest of the trip as the Bullhead flew towards Mistral and the Hospital.

* * *

Loki watched as the two teenagers…well he wouldn't say fight, but sort of rolled around on the couch. Weiss was being very aggressive, she clearly couldn't handle her drink. His semblance worked better on intoxicated people but he wasn't responsible for this.

This was a true train wreck as he tried to kiss Jaune, and all the proof he needed to confirm in his mind humans didn't need him to ruin their lives.

Jaune was in a relationship with Weiss's partner, Ruby Rose. He'd also heard Weiss talking about her life to Jaune.

She clearly was having a hard time handle the harder Whiskey, and had drunk much more than she should have and now she was making a fool of herself.

He felt a twinge in his stomach at this. She was so refined under normal circumstances, now she was acting like bar trash.

"Weiss stop!" Jaune eventually said and threw her off to the side of him onto the couch.

She slumped onto the couch and looked dejected. "Whatss wrong?" she mumbled.

"I'm with Ruby Weiss and even if I wasn't." He said, and Loki thought he heard some anger in his voice "I wouldn't go out with you."

Weiss went wide-eyed and her jaw dropped open and thumped on her chest. "But you…were obsessed with meee." She mumbled.

"Yeah I was." He said, much louder than was necessary, he was feeling the effects of the alcohol as well. "But you shot me down all the time and weren't really all that gentle about." He said in a quieter tone. "I guy can only take so much before he moves on."

Loki watched with interest, learning more exploitable weaknesses from these two. What was even better, he figured Ruby was jealous of her partner from her little exhibition before the rest of them left, now he had some truth to bring out.

The best lies were mostly true.

They continued to keep going back and forth, but they were fading out, Weiss was. Before long she'd passed out on the couch, and Jaune hadn't realized it. It took him five minutes to realize it, and he took her shoes off and put a blanket over her.

Her turned to look at Loki and walked over, and slight stagger in his step. He yanked the rag off and pulled the gag out.

"You don't tell anyone what she did." He said, pointing a finger at his face.

"My dear friend." Loki said smiling "Who would believe a word I said?"

Jaune seemed to consider this, and nodded. He walked over to couch and sat down and just looked at Loki.

"You want to talk about it?" Loki asked, putting on his most genuine face.

"Why would I talk to you?" Jaune said defensively.

"Because no matter what you tell me, even if I repeated it, no one would believe me."

Loki looked Jaune in the eyes and eventually Jaune said and said "Alright."

Loki smirked at catching the boy in his snare.

* * *

 **AN: Please Review.**


	17. Tricks or Truth

AN: Few announcements this this time.

As usual, I want to thank anyone who left a review, just MistahKilJoy this time, but it's always appreciated.

Also, as this story wraps up, I'm making an outline for a companion story, to Follow Loki as he navigates this world. It would cover the time up to his encounter with Weiss and entry into this story.

I'd like some feedback on that idea, if anyone else would be interested in reading it. What I have planned is a more streamline story than this one and would be considerably shorter.

So, this story is going to reach its climax soon, without giving up to much information, we are only going to have one more change of location.

Okay, that's it's for notes and questions, please let me know what you think of a companion story following Loki.

Also, I passed the 200,000 word mark with this chapter, so that's a thing I'm sort of happy with.

And of course, leave a review.

* * *

Tricks or Truth

* * *

"I just don't know where I am in this whole ordeal." Jaune said muttering.

Loki for his part, hadn't thought this was how'd it would go. Jaune Arc was using him more like a therapist. He heard about his family, his friends, and his life at school.

"Jaune please." He said, and Jaune went quiet. "I understand you have some things you want to get off your chest, but maybe we stick to the topic of what just happened, hmmm?" He said raising his eye brows.

Jaune looked back at the sleeping Weiss and just nodded. "I used to like her, like a lot." He started. "But she kept shooting me down, and sort of gave up." He sighed. "Then we meet again, I get together with Ruby and now this." He gestured to her.

"Yes, that's all quite inconvenient." Loki said with only putting moderate amount of sympathy. It wouldn't matter at this point; the boy was under his spell and pretty well buzzed from the whiskey. This was one of the most pliable states a person could be in for it to work. He was upset, a little drunk, and generally confused.

"Is this some kind of test?" Jaune asked after some time of silence.

"How do you mean?" Loki asked a bit confused.

"Like, well you know, the gods or something trying to test me."

"I don't know." Loki said.

"What do you mean you don't know? Aren't you one of them?" Jaune said with an irritated tone.

Loki shook his head "That's offensive you know." He then looked at the ground as if ashamed of Jaune, but was really hiding his smirk.

"Huh?" Jaune looked confused and continued "How is that offensive?"

"It's stereotyping." Loki said looking up with a straight face "Why not sacrifice a virgin or goat to me while you're at it?" He tones coming off as agitated, but inside he was thoroughly amused with this new line of distraction.

To his credit Jaune looked embarrassed and he said "Sorry, I didn't mean…" he trailed off before something seemed to shake him into a slightly clearer state of mind and he stood up and walked away from Loki.

That wasn't sitting well with the god of mischief. The change hadn't been severely dramatic, but to him it was noticeable. Something had crossed the boy mind to agitate him enough for him to break the conversation.

"Is everything alright?" Loki said with concern in his voice he didn't really feel.

"You know I've read a bit about." Jaune replied as he went to kitchen to get a glass of water. "We have this book, you get mentioned in it."

That, Loki wasn't prepared for. What book could be on this world that could detail him in any capacity?

"Really now, what does it say?"

"You're a trickster, can't be trusted, and I pretty much get the impression that trusting you in any way is a bad idea." Jaune said, and his voice made it clear he was sobering up.

"Yes, I'm sure it did, but I'm sure you could have deduced as much." He said now getting irritated "What else did you read?"

Jaune took another drink of water and looked uncomfortable "You weren't always like that." He said, "You used to be respectable, if crafty, and true friend of your brothers."

Loki scowled at this. That was true, and he hated anyone knowing it. But this human body made him more susceptible to what he called "human desires", and by that he didn't mean carnal desires. He meant the need for companionship in way of friends, or loved ones. He'd had those feelings long ago, before his long-standing feud with his brother, but he'd buried deep.

But being in a human body made them feel like those old feelings were clawing their way out of the grave. He knew it was human nature to desire companionship, that loneliness was torture to a human. They were hard wired to be around other's, and he'd been fighting those feelings for close to three years.

But what he didn't like was the reminder of the fact these new feelings weren't new to this human form, but they were much stronger.

"Maybe I used to be more…friendly, but that was a long time ago." He muttered out "But that was eons ago."

"So why not try and start over." Jaune said, fiddling with the now empty glass in his hand.

Loki snorted at this idea. He wasn't going to ever be able to start over, even if his brother wasn't here. He'd seen that in the time he'd spent here. He had tried to lay low, relatively speaking, but it was in his nature to seize power, to try and climb to the top.

"Sorry that's just not in my nature." He smiled as he said this, but with no trace of joy in it.

"Yeah, because doing what you've been doing, that's really worked out for you the pasted billion years, or however old you are." Jaune said as he walked over and gagged him again.

He hated it whenever someone pointed out his failures. But what they never seemed to understand was he only needed to win once, then it was all over.

He watched Jaune was he went to a closet and pulled something out. It looked like a jumble of belts and some extension cords.

He didn't know what he was doing at first, but then he started to tie even more lines around him with the belts and cords.

"I'm tired." Jaune said to the unasked question "And I don't want you slipping out if I doze off."

Soon Loki had a near cocoon of belts, cords and cables securing him to the chair. He was thoroughly uncomfortable was had to go to the bathroom.

As soon as Jaune finished, he walked back to the closet and can back out with duct tape. As he started peeling of the tape, Loki just groaned at what he knew was coming.

* * *

The hospital was the same one Thor had stayed in when he'd been poisoned, and it didn't exactly hold sweet memories for Yang. But her mother was here, and despite all the hate she felt for her, she also couldn't douse the longing she felt as well.

Her mother had managed to get a really nasty infection and was in Critical care. The doctors had told her that surgery would be needed and a huge course of anti-biotics.

She would be heading into surgery soon, and Yang had elected to stay and wait. Thor offered to stay with her, but she knew he wanted to make sure his brother hadn't slipped away.

"Go on." She said, "Go check on your brother, I'll be fine here for a little bit."

Thor didn't look sure, but in truth she didn't want Weiss alone with that trickster for too long. He'd manipulated her already, and she thought sooner or later, they might come to blows.

She thought Weiss could take him, Loki's brief scuffle with Thor did not leave her with the impression he was a very powerful fighter on his own. Still, he was literally a trickster god, meaning he was bound to be crafty.

All her friends had left her at the hospital, all promising to come back after checking in with and reliving Weiss and Jaune of their post.

But now, she was alone with her thoughts. And she wondered what she'd ask her mother when she woke up. This was a stupid thought, because she'd known for a long time what she'd ask. "Why?"

She didn't even know if she wanted that answered, but she thought she might need it. She had told Thor that she wasn't interest in finding her anymore, but that hadn't been true. She hadn't lied, but she'd fooled herself in that regard.

She was here and now was her chance, and she intended to seize it.

* * *

The Camp was deserted, that was obvious to Qrow. But there was a fair bit to salvage in terms of gear. The Wendo didn't steal weapons, the White Fang might have, but they hadn't been able to carry it all off.

The Council had ordered any useable materials to be brought back for the city, and he didn't begrudge it. They were short on anything for defense, and it made sense to get where they could.

But he was more interested in searching the one standing tent. Raven had said her group hadn't taken the relic, and while he didn't think she was lying, it would foolish to take her word on the matter and not look.

He looked in every chest, drawer, under everything that wasn't nailed down and then some. He knew his sister would want the relic somewhere she could get it easily enough that if she had to flee, she could take it with her, and after a long search, he concluded she was telling the truth. And if she wasn't, then it was hidden well enough for now that he could afford to wait until she fessed up.

He left the tent and headed to his Bullhead as the non-hunters, loaded up some crates. The hunters were standing perimeter watch for Grimm as the last of it was loaded up.

As the last of what could be salvaged was loaded up, the Bullhead took off back to Mistral. His sister wasn't going to be in any condition to talk until at least tomorrow. For now, he had an uninvited guest on his temporary residence, and he had questions.

* * *

Weiss felt herself slowly waking from her sleep and her head was throbbing. It took her a moment to member why she was in such a predicament. She'd drank about a pint of whiskey the night before and now she was sick as a dog.

She sat up, but had to lay back down almost instantly as her head started to spin.

"You don't look so good." A voice, one she didn't ever want to hear again called out to her.

She saw Loki tied to a chair, and in a much more extensive fashion than she remembered. Duct tape, cords, cables and belts bound him now.

She rubbed her temples and looked around the room and saw Jaune asleep in the chair. "Jaune didn't gag you?"

Loki made a sort of jerking motion that she took to be an attempt at a shrug "He tried, but he didn't knot it properly, and I can do amazing things with my tongue." She blushed a bit at that comment, and Loki looked confused for a moment, but then sighed in an exasperated way. "That wasn't a sex joke, I was referring to my skill in persuasion."

Weiss felt a little embarrassed that her mind had gone where it had, too much time with people like Yang she supposed.

Silence came over them for a few minutes before he spoke again "I hate to ask this, but I need to use the rest room."

"I'm not letting you out." She said in a cold tone.

"Please?" He said almost pleading "I've been holding it for hours, and I'd rather not wet myself."

Weiss considered it, and while she was sick to her stomach from the decisions of the previous night, she was certain he was telling the truth. It would of have been hours since he'd managed to actually use the bathroom.

But she didn't want to let him out, in part because she doubted she could replicate the current restraints he had on. The tape wouldn't be useful anymore, and the knots on weren't going to be easy to undo. If any speed was to be had in getting him out he'd have to be cut loss.

She absolutely did not trust him to not run as soon as the chance presented itself. And, if she was being honest, the idea of him in discomfort felt good to her, pay back for what he'd done.

But as soon as those thought came into her mind, she hated that she had them. She never wanted to become a malicious person like her father and brother.

But she didn't want to let him out either. As she thought on what to do, there was a knock at the door.

The person didn't wait for an answer and soon Thor came traipsing in, axe in hand. Behind him came the rest of her friends.

"Good, you're here, can someone please let me use the bathroom." Loki asked in as polite a tone he could.

"What happened to you?" Ruby ask, pointing at his new restraints.

"That one wanted to make sure I couldn't get away if he nodded off." Loki said gesturing towards Jaune with his head.

Everyone looked at Jaune, who was slowly waking from his sleep in the chair.

"Jaune, you know you're supposed to stay awake to watch prisoners, right?" Blake said in a deadpan voice.

Jaune rubbed his face "I'm sorry, I was just tired." He said standing up.

Blake looked ready to say something but Loki spoke again "Bathroom?"

Thor walked over to his brother and pulled out a knife and started cutting the tape that encased the more typical bindings. It took some time to get the tape off and even longer to undo the knots with the residue still on them, but eventually he was free and Thor was escorting them to the bathroom.

After a few minutes Thor was escorting Loki back and sat him down in the chair.

"Hold on." Blake said as Thor got ready to tie him up again. "I got something from the Bullhead that will work better." With that she produced a set of restraints used in prisoner transports. She tossed them to Thor, who proceeded to restrain his brother and secure him to the chair.

"This is much more comfortable." Loki said sarcastically.

"Well, I'm happy you're comfortable." Thor said harshly. "But right now, we have some questions."

"There is no need for that." Loki said in a calm tone "I'm ready to talk."

Loki smiled as he said this, and Thor just looked at him with the utmost distrust. "Why?"

"I'm caught, and I'd rather be able to get something out of this." He said in measured tones.

"Okay brother, talk."

* * *

The sky was red and the land looked dead in this Kingdom. Arthur wasn't bothered much by what the place looked like, but the ruler had him on edge at all times, even if he hid it well.

Salem was not forgiving of failure, and the while he didn't consider her overtly cruel in punishment, the level of news he had to report could be hazardous to his health. But he had some good news, and that may be enough to get him past the bad news.

He walked into the palace, carrying his new machine, and the relic. He'd communicated the situation to Salem, but the in-person reaction could be worlds apart from the long-distance kind.

The halls were empty and silent. Soon he found himself outside the chamber they had meetings in. Pushing the door open he strode in and saw Salem sitting at the far end.

"Dr. Watts, I hope your promises ring true." She said coolly.

"Yes, my Queen." He said producing a box and placed it inform of the table in front of her.

She opened it and pulled the relic, smiling. "Well done Doctor, but what about the other piece of news you had?"

Dr. Watts placed the suitcase on the table and opened it. "This machine can open the vaults, we won't need the Maiden to get the remaining relics."

"Good, but tell me what happened to the relic from Beacon, you told me you thought it was destroyed."

"Yes, my Queen, the book you gave me." He produced the book as he spoke "It isn't in here anymore."

Salem took the book and opened it and started flipping pages. "You said Hazel had it before it disappeared."

"Yes, my Queen."

"The events on the bridge, the man who appeared to throw back the attack, he is most interesting." She said more to herself than to Doctor Watts. "We're moving up the time table Doctor, make another of these machines, we're going after the other two relics."

"Yes, my Queen." Arthur said, bowing out of the room.

As he left Salem wondered about the man on the bridge, and where the power of the relic had gone. It wouldn't have just disappeared, it had to go somewhere, and that man was the starting point of the investigation.

* * *

Qrow was feeling defeated as he arrived back at the house he was renting. No relic, no lead and now he had to deal with the unlawful detaining of one his nieces boyfriends brother. He believed them when they said he was Thor's brother, they wouldn't do something this reckless unless they were certain.

Still, he was technically a civilian, and they'd abducted him. This could get messy if it was handled properly.

As he walked over the threshold to his home, he was meet with the sight of almost all of his niece's friends sitting in the living room listening as a man restrained in a chair he assumed to be Loki spoke.

"You've all been busy." Qrow said as he walked into the house and everyone looked at him.

"He's been talking." Thor said, not happy "But he isn't giving it away all at once." Thor's tone of voice was irritated, but also seemed resigned that this was how his brother worked.

"That was when I realized what my semblance was and started to really make my way in this world." Loki said as if he was giving useful information.

Nora let out a loud groan "He's just leading us on!" She bellowed "Thor, make him talk." This time is coming off as more of a whine.

"I could never make him talk." Thor muttered.

"Well…just break something." She said nonchalantly.

"We aren't going to torture him Nora." Ren said, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Wouldn't do any good." Thor said, watching Loki smile "There's nothing we can do to him that would be as bad as what he's experienced."

Qrow stepped forward and spoke "What does he know?"

"He says he knows about Salem, where she is, and what her plans are." Jaune responded.

"What make you so sure he isn't lying?" Qrow asked "Isn't that his whole deal? He's the god of lies."

The looks on everyone's face told him they were aware of this and were leery of him.

"I can prove it." Loki said. "Just take me to my apartment."

"Why? What's there?" Qrow asked.

"Your missing relic, and something else of interest."

The room got quiet for a moment and Loki just kept smiling.

* * *

Yang waited for the doctors to come to tell her what the news was and felt incredibly ragged. This was the worst part to her, of anything potentially unpleasant.

She'd been here for a few hours already and she was not a person who could sit still for long.

"Miss Xiao Long?" a voice came from her left and Yang looked up to see a Doctor, still in the surgery gear. "Your mother is out, she's resting now, if you want to sit with her until she wakes up, I can show you to her."

No, she really didn't want to sit with the woman unless she was answering questions, but if she was there when she woke up, she could get right to the issue. "Okay, lets go." She said standing up.

The walked down the hall into one of the ICU rooms where Raven lay, as still as a corpse. Yang felt her heart stop for a second. She looked almost dead, her skin looked so pale it was almost translucent. But the beeping of the machine's told her that wasn't the case.

"You can sit down if you want." The doctor said gesturing at one of the chairs "A nurse will be in shortly." With that the doctor left Yang alone with his unconscious mother.

It was almost surreal to see her like this. She hadn't seen her in person since a time she probably couldn't even properly remember. She didn't count the time on the train, given the mask and her own concussion.

In her mind, over the years of searching and periods of obsessing, this woman had taken on an almost mythical status. Now her she was, looking like a cadaver, and vulnerable.

It scared her, it made her angry and in some perverse way, satisfied her. That made her feel sick, but her resentment of the woman was bubbling up inside her, and all the hurt feelings and emotions she'd associated with her for so long came to front of her mind.

"You know I've hated you for a long time." Yang said to her still sleeping mother. "You abandoned me and dad." She took a deep breath "Then when you ever give me so much come near me, you leave before we can so much as talk."

"I wanted to make you strong." The voice made Yang almost jump out of her skin before she realized it was coming from her mother.

"How's that now?" Yang asked.

"I wanted to you struggle and fight for something you wanted, that's how I grew up." Raven said, opening her eyes and looking at Yang.

"Look were that's gotten you." Yang said through clenched teeth. "I'm only here for answers, your own brother doesn't want anything to do with you."

"But I was strong."

"You were alone."

"I'm not going to apologize for it Yang." Raven said.

That hurt her to the core, it cut much deeper than she ever would have expected. "Then I don't know why I'm here." She said and turned to leave. She walked slower than she normally would have, hoping he mother would call to her, try and talk to her. But it was silence.

She walked out of the room and leaned against the wall. Her eyes were burning and she rubbed at them to try and get rid of her tears.

She didn't know what she'd expected, some big explanation, a revelation? No, just a neglectful woman who's own weird sense of "upbringing" had left her without a mother.

This was not at all what she wanted to happen. But it was over, as anti-climactic it was.

She felt completely empty inside as she left the hospital, because despite what she had suspected, she hadn't ever been ready for his mother's indifference, she didn't think anyone ever could.

* * *

Raven watched her daughter leave the room with little more than annoyance at how she'd been raised. She should have brought her back to the clan to raise her with a proper sense of the world. But she didn't care for children, never had.

At most she felt an atavistic sense of familial fondness for Yang, she'd saved her once and that had been all she'd ever done for the girl. Tai and Qrow's sentient had made Yang soft, that was probably why she had lost her arm.

Still, watching her daughter leave her alone with nothing but the sound the hospital equipment, made her feel lonely. The sound of the machines somehow seemed so much more suffocating and isolating than the sounds of nature she'd been surrounded by since the camp had been attacked.

None of her underlings were here, most of them were dead, and those who weren't would have scattered.

Her brother had made sure she'd gotten here, but she felt that wasn't really out of sibling love.

Yang's word "You were alone" echoed in her mind. She hadn't thought she was, but now as she lay here, abandoned by her blood relatives, and whatever remained of her clan, she thought she may have been right.

Just knowing a person didn't mean you were really connected with them, and as she pondered this, she thought she had no real friends. Underlings and minions, she certainly had. She had their respect, but it had been a long time since someone had known her on an intimate level, not since her time at school she was tempted to think.

She closed her eyes and listened to beeping of the machines, and for the first time in a long time, she wondered if she'd made the correct choices in life.

* * *

"You know if your lying, you going to be in a world of trouble." Qrow said as he, Thor and Blake escorted him back to his apartment. They had discussed it and while everyone wanted to go, Qrow immediately knew that having that many people would draw unwanted attention. For this same reason, Loki was unbound and allowed to walk free, but at the center of the group. He wasn't a fantastic warrior by the accounts of the group and while tricky, didn't have the means to escape.

"Why would I lie?" Loki said in an innocent tone that sounded anything but.

The truth was it was to his advantage to tell the truth in this situation, but Thor had made it very clear that Loki by his very nature would cause minor problems just to spite someone.

The Apartment was still a mess for the fight and the apprehension, but as they entered, Loki raised a hand to stop them.

Blake spoke first "What is it?"

"Someone else has been here." He said as he looked around the room.

"How can you tell?" Qrow asked stepping forward, looking around the apartment.

"I'm sure you can smell it." Loki said turning to look at Blake.

Blake looked offended at first, but then she did pick something up. It was faint, but it smelled like a cologne, one that none of her friends wore. But she had no idea how Loki had picked it up.

"He's right." She said, sniffing at the air to try and get a clearer scent. "How did you know? Can you smell it?"

"No." Loki said as he walked into the room "But I was certain you could."

"Then how did you know someone was here?" Thor asked, following his brother to make sure he didn't get to far away.

"Someone's been going through my things." Loki said as he approached his desk and picked up an open lockbox. "It's gone."

Qrow knew what he meant, but asked anyway "You mean the relic." It was a statement more than a question.

Loki nodded and dumped the rest of the contents on the desk, sifted through them and pocketed some persona affects.

"What about the other thing you mentioned." Blake aske "The machine that opened the vault."

"Gone." Loki muttered, now very aware of the fact he was out of cards to play. He could try and trick them, but Thor would diffuse any attempt he made.

"So, you lied." Thor said not sounding the least be surprised.

"No!" Loki didn't quite shout, but still louder than necessary "You and your gang thugs abducted me and left this place open to any who wanted to come in." He pointed an accusing finger at Thor. He started rifling through papers on the desk and found a piece of paper and threw it at Thor.

It landed on the floor in front of him and bent over and picked it up. It was a photo-realistic drawing of a man.

"Who is this?" Thor asked waving the paper at his brother.

"I'm willing to bet everything I own it's the man who stole the relic and machine." Loki said.

Qrow snatched the paper from Thor while he was talking to Loki. "How did you get this?" Qrow asked Loki.

"The relic made it, that's the man who killed the Headmaster of Haven, and given his death so shortly after I stole the relic, I'm betting he was the one behind the machine."

"So what the relic is some kind of…oracle?" Thor asked.

Loki shrugged, "In a manner of speaking, it answered every question I asked it."

"But how can you be sure this is the man who stole relic?" Blake asked.

"He is." Qrow muttered "I recognize him as one of Salem's goons." He crumpled the paper and threw it to the floor.

Silence crept over the room, and none of them spoke for a long time.

Eventually Blake broke the silence "So what do we do now?"

"I have to warn the other Headmasters of this." Qrow said to no one in particular "If that machine can open the vaults, then the Maiden's won't be needed to get the relics." He started towards the door.

"Hold on! Qrow, we need a plan, there's no way you can get to both academies in time." Blake ran after him to stop him.

"No, I can't, you kids are going to have to go to Atlas, warn Ironwood about this."

Qrow was out of the door and gone before they could ask him more.

* * *

Yang made her way as quickly as she could, her stomach felt like someone had scoped her insides out. Part of her had known everything her mother had said was coming, but she had held out hope there was more. No such luck.

Qrow's home came into view as she turned the corner, and she didn't bother to knock. She just went in and barely noticed everyone hanging around room.

She made her way right to the bathroom and closed the door. She started to strip down and climb in the shower. As the water poured over her she heard a knocking at the door "Yang…are you okay?"

It was Ruby, of course it was. "I just need a minute Ruby." She called out from the shower. Aside from time to defrag her mind, the shower was necessary, she hadn't had a shower sense the whole fiasco with Thor's brother.

But she felt the need to wash, not just the grim, but her feeling off. She wanted to put her mother behind her. Her real mother died years ago, the woman who actually raised her. But she still had her father, uncle, sister and her friends. She still had a lot. She knew she was better off focusing on what she still had rather than what she lost.

She shut off the water and stepped out of the shower. She dried her hair and realized she had no clean cloths. She looked at the cloths she'd just taken off, and while she didn't like the idea of putting on day old cloths, she also realized she didn't have any choice in the matter, this was Qrow's apartment and she didn't have any cloths here and Qrow wouldn't have anything she could wear. Well, that was strictly true, but he wasn't exactly tidy in his house keeping.

She figured she could go through a few hours of wearing the same cloths she'd just changed into, even if it meant having to take another shower later.

She got dressed and left the bathroom, to find Rudy waiting outside for her.

"Hey." Ruby said.

"Hey." Yang said in response.

"I'm guessing…it didn't go well?" Ruby said.

Yang just shrugged "I mean, no it didn't. But I don't know what I was expecting. She didn't want to see me all this time, but…" she trailed off and felt tears starting to well up in her eyes. She knuckled them away the tears.

Before she knew what was happening, she felt arms around her. Ruby had rushed in to hug her.

She squeezed her little sister back, and pulled her head to her chest. They didn't speak, they didn't need to.

The silence between them was broken by the sound of the front door flying open. They broke apart and made their way to the front room, but Qrow pushed past them to get to his bed room.

"Qrow!" Yang heard Weiss yelling after him "What's wrong? Did Loki escape."

"No!" Qrow called back. "But I have to go." He said packing a bag.

"What!" Ruby shouted as she ran into their Uncle's room "Where?"

"I'm going to Shade Academy." He threw his bag over his shoulder. "Thor and Blake will fill you in on what you need to do, but I have to go." He hugged Ruby quickly and moved to Yang and embraced her for a second before saying "Look after your sister."

Before Yang could respond, Qrow was out the front door and gone.

Everyone was flabbergasted by the Qrow's sudden appearance and departure. But they were also scared, something had rattled him pretty badly. Yang was tempted to think of the period of time while they were here in Mistral he'd gone off the deep end and started drinking much more than usual.

She pulled out her scroll and called her Uncle. Only to hear it buzz on the night stand by his bed.

"Shit." She muttered. She'd of run after him if she thought that would make a difference, but her uncle could cover huge distances when he wanted to.

She went to her second plan, and dialed Thor. It rang for a few second before Thor picked up.

"Hello?"

"Thor, what happened with Loki? Qrow just showed up and just left, saying he had to go to Shade academy."

"We'll explain as best we can when we get there, it'll be better if everyone hears it at once." Thor's voice stayed calm, and in turn Yang felt herself calming down as well. That was something she come to learn about herself, if her temper was flaring or she was getting worked up, just talking to someone who was more grounded at the time went a long way to calming her down.

"Alright…how long do you guys think you'll be?"

"Fifteen minutes." Thor said over the scroll.

"Alright, see you then."

* * *

"You don't have to push me." Loki muttered as Thor kept moving him along with repeated shoves into his back.

"Then move faster." His brother said pushing him again.

"We're here anyway." Blake said from behind the two brothers.

Both looked to see they had been so busy bickering, that Thor has shoved Loki past their destination.

Thor grabbed Loki collar and dragged him back to the home Qrow had rented and up to the door. He didn't knock, he just opened the door and shoved Loki in.

Loki kept his footing and adjusted him shirt as he stood up right. The room was full of hostile people, all of whom were trained warriors of some superhuman level. He wasn't as much of a pushover as he let them think he was, but Thor alone would demolish him, he'd always been the warrior, he needed to play it cool and try and figure out something else now that his bargaining chips were gone.

The blonde girl, Yang came into the room and went right to his brother. From him understanding, his brother was intimate with he girl, which seemed to be her preference, mortal girls.

"Thor, what's going on?" she said "Qrow bugged out and left us here saying you and Blake." She gestured to Blake as she said her name "Would explain."

Thor signed and started with the explanation "Long story short, the relic is gone, along with some sort of…device to unlock the security blocking them." Thor shrugged as he finished, undoubtedly knowing how weak the explanation was, but not having more to go on. "Your Uncle thinks that the relics are no long safe, and he's going to Shade academy, he wants us to go to Atlas."

"All of us?" Ruby jumped into the conversation.

"I'd assume so." Blake answered. "I'm guessing he thinks he'll move quicker on his own." She added as an afterthought.

"Well, I'm certainly ready for a change of scenery." Loki said smiling "I look forward to a colder climate, reminds me of home."

"You aren't coming with us!" Ruby shouted at Loki.

"Oh, so you're going to leave me here?" he said raising an eyebrow "I'm fine either way."

"Your going to a jail!" Ruby shouted back.

"For what charge? Existing while Jotun?" He said while sounding genuinely confused.

"For all the crimes, you've committed!" Ruby shouted not getting really excited.

"You mean while I've been here?" He gestured at the ground for emphasis "Because there aren't any of those. Unless of course you mean from before, good luck convincing the authorities of that." Loki cleared his throat and did an incredibly cruel, but eerily accurate impression of Ruby's voice. "Here he is officers, God of mischief, he's been turning people into frogs for years!" He finished the impression and looked at her in a bored fashion. "I'm sure that will work very well."

"Uh..uh…" Ruby started realizing along with the rest of her friends that he was completely right. They had no proof of wrong doing while he was here, and trying to tell the truth would make them sound either insane or like trouble makers. "I suddenly have more appreciation for Thor not telling us the truth." She muttered.

"If anything." Loki continued "You will get in trouble with the authorities for kidnapping a civilian."

Loki was thoroughly amused as he watched the various expression on all their faces. All except Thor, who had always had a devil may care attitude when it came to the rules anyway.

"So…I'm coming, right?" Loki said smiling in a way of person who knew they had all the cards.

* * *

"I don't want him near me." Weiss said as she sat in her apartment with Jaune and Ruby. She was till embarrassed and severely hurt from the deception Loki had pulled on her, and added to the fact she was heading back to the same kingdom she just escaped.

"I know, but we can't leave him here." Jaune said "Or…well Thor won't leave him unattended, and from what I've read in the book, I get it."

"Look on the Brightside." Ruby said, "You'll get to see you sister again."

Weiss sighed at the silver lining, but she supposed that was what she'd have to do. She was also acutely aware of her own desires to reconcile with her family she had experience during her own near-death experiences in battle.

But she knew this was growing beyond her ability to properly control. Gods and monsters beyond her imagination, she had never been so uncertain of her place in the world as now.

She did her best to push these thoughts to the back of her mind. The journey back home should take precedent. They had two options, but airship or standard sea ship. The airship was the faster more efficient of the two, it was superior in every way.

Except price. With Atlas closing off it's borders, airship passage was becoming exponentially expensive. The standard ship was still pricey, but given the need to import certain things still made both needed to the kingdom. But the airships were subject to far more intensive security measures than the sea bound ships.

They probably couldn't afford an airship, not for all of them. Not for nine people, even if she emptied the money she'd saved.

A trip by the sea was likely their only option. A much cheaper, but much slower trip. She didn't know if she could stand being that close to Loki for the week or two the trip would take.

But there was no helping it, they couldn't afford an airship, and she was going to be forced to be near the man she hated the most for at least week.

* * *

All Loki could think was this room was far below his standard of living. His brother had let him retrieve a few items form him apartment, but he was still robbed of many of the comforts he wished he had. But still he had money and few items of his own invention to help him along the way.

But this ship was not at all in line with what he considered fitting for someone like himself. It was designed to ship cargo, not people, and while it had modified to do so, it wasn't pleasant.

It was dank and dark, the only respite they received was on deck. He could get fresh air there and escape the squalor of the sleeping quarters.

On the deck of the ship Loki breathed deep the cold salt air. This felt right, this felt like home. Not his home from infancy, the cold world of his birth where it was cold enough to kill a mortal man in a moment. No, Asgard was like the north country of Midgard, cool year-round, a snow could occur even in summer.

They were getting closer to the North most Kingdom of Atlas. Maybe after all this was said and done, he could work his way into a power base in this Kingdom. They were the most powerful of the four, and wealthiest.

Maybe this for the best, Mistral was getting tiered anyway. As he walked the deck, he wondered how his brother would fix this mess. He'd long since given up on wondering if his brother could achieve something, but more how. In the eons they had been alive, he just seemed to achieve his goal, no matter how impossible it might have seemed.

Even in mortal form, which had happened to him before, but he had some advantages he didn't normally have, some super human abilities.

He turned a corner and headed towards the bow of the ship. As he did, he noticed a familiar head of white hair leaning over the railing staring off into the ocean.

He walked quietly up to Weiss, his footsteps a quiet as a cat.

"Thinking of home?" He said once he was close, hoping to make her jump. No such amusement, she just looked at him for a moment and looked back out to sea.

"Leave me alone Loki." She muttered.

He didn't listen, a terrible habit of his really, he never listened. Instead he walked to the railing and leaned on it mimicking her.

"You know it wasn't all lies." He said, just looking out to the sea.

"Forgive me if I don't believe you." She muttered, still not looking at him.

Loki again cursed the frailty of mortals, and the affect it was having on his mentality. Her comment stung him a bit, when he was normally imperious to such things. This was the working of his father, to make him feel like a mortal man.

"Well, tell me what you think my semblance is." He said.

"Tricking people, Thor said you can make people believe your lies." She said.

She wasn't completely wrong, but they had only picked up on part of it, and that was to his advantage.

"So, by that logic, I could only make you believe deceptions." He said.

"I suppose."

"So, what about the truth or real things? You think I was lying constantly?"

She didn't answer right away, and he took that as a good sign. His semblance was far less affective on the suspicious, but the confused were more accessible.

But he didn't use it. He told himself he didn't need it, his own charm would carry him, and it was more trouble than it was worth right now, given she knew about it.

Instead he stood there, next to her in silence for a few minutes.

"I understand." He finally said.

"What?" She finally turned to him, but he still stared out into the ocean.

"Why you don't want to go back." He said.

"What are you talking about?" her voice was getting agitated.

"You family is in Atlas and you don't want to face them." He turned his head to look at her now, and Weiss thought for a moment she saw empathy in those eyes, but it gone the next moment.

"I'm certain I-"she started, but he cut her off.

"You told me enough, and your famous enough that the research was easy." He turned from her to look back out to the ocean. "Your father…I know something of father's who think of their children as tools."

Odin, his father, adopted or not, whom he loved and hated at the same time. He was to be used to achieve his own goals, just like Weiss's father had done with her, her sister and brother. Granted Odin's goals had been for more magnanimous the Weiss's father, but still to this day, the truth stung.

Weiss didn't answer for a long time, and eventually he even forgot she was there as he stared out to the ocean.

"What happened to you?" she finally asked.

Loki just glanced at her before responding "You've read the book, you know."

"I'd like to hear it from you." Her voice was much gentler than he had expected it to be.

"I'm assuming you know the general idea." He said with a sigh. "Frost giant runt abandoned, taken in by the King of Asgard, raised as a prince." He said before really getting into the more personal parts. "But I didn't know for years, and when I found out, I also found out Odin took me to try and use me to become a bridge between the two races, make me a sort of…puppet king." He hated the story, but it was so well known to most at this point that he didn't much bother to hide it.

Weiss didn't say anything for a while, but just turned to look at the ocean. "My father has always tried to control me."

"And do you have a brother who your father favors unconditionally?" Loki said with a laugh.

She didn't answer right away, but eventually whispered "Yes." But then she added "I have a sister though, she'd do anything for me." Loki laughed at this and even shook his head. "What's so funny about that!" She shouted.

"Me and Thor used to be like that, as close as any two people could be but…well you've read the book."

"You did that!" she almost yelled "It's your own fault you two grew apart."

Loki just shrugged "Maybe part of it, but my father certainly didn't help, with the praise he showered on my brother while ignoring me. The people loved him, he was the hero of the kingdom. I was laughed at and scorned because I choose to fight with my mind rather than my body." He looked at her, and the expression in his eyes made her step back, sorrow was showing in those startling blue eyes. "A person can only be treated as some vermin for so long before he becomes one." He turned away to stare into the ocean.

* * *

Weiss wanted to believe his show of emotion was genuine. But she knew she shouldn't, the time she'd known him before his true identity being reveled was less than three days, and she was certain she was under the thrall of his semblance at the time, which would explain her emotional infatuation with him.

But she thought she saw some glints of real emotion in his face. She did now a bit of his past, from the book, and he seemed to be following that line, but with his own personal point of view.

But she recognized the feeling she was having. These were feelings of wanting to believe, rather than truly believing. It's a sensation she associated with her family, of wanting to feel one thing because it was preferable to the truth.

She hated Loki, but at the same time she empathized with him. As much as she wanted to put that off on his semblance, if he was to be believed, which she knew he shouldn't, he'd had a rough time of it. The book backed it up. Unwanted son of one King and the tool of another, not likely to make a happy man.

She felt like she should say something, because she sort of felt like she'd seen a similar treatment from her father. But there was no way to vocalize it without it being condescending. A 'I know how you feel', was one of the worst things a person could say to someone dealing with some sort of issue.

Instead she said, "Can we start over?"

Loki glanced at her and spoke "I don't want to repeat myself."

"No…I mean…" she sighed and then extended a hand "I'm Weiss Schnee."

It took him a moment to respond. But a smile a graced his lips and he gripped her hand and shook it. "I'm Loki Odinson."

The use of the Norse naming conventions for his last name was not lost on her. 'Odinson' was his way of showing he thought of Odin as his father, despite everything.

But as he shook her hand, he pulled gently on her arm and leaned in and kissed her hand. She wanted to pull away, but instead she just let him release it and her hand fell to her side. Her face flushed as he smiled at her and that's when it struck her.

His near constant smile, she knew now why it seemed so familiar to her. Thor did the same thing back as Beacon. He smiled all the time and at first, she'd found it irritating, but now, she'd never admit it, but she loved it. The constant cheerfulness when happiness had been a stranger to her for so many years.

He smiled, and Thor smiled, but with Loki she wondered if it was real.

"As touching as I find this scene, if it isn't too much trouble Weiss, I would like a word with my brother." A voice that startled her said.

She turned to see Thor standing behind her and Loki. Despite his size he was so quiet in his movements, it almost wasn't fair. Then she remembered he was a literal god and knew that it wasn't.

"Of course." She said before turning to Loki and saying "Loki", with a nod, all the acknowledgment she gave him before leaving the two brothers.

* * *

As Weiss left, Thor walked to the railing and leaned on it and looked into the ocean. Loki mimicked his posture and leaned on the rail and looked out as well.

It was some time before Thor spoke "What happened between us Loki?"

"We're grew apart Thor." Loki muttered.

"I thought we'd be fighting side by side till Ragnarok, now…at least once a year we are at odds, trying to kill each other." Thor's voice had traces of sadness in as he spoke.

"Thor, we are to different." Loki said "I was treated as an outsider my whole life, it can only happen for so long before I start to act like it."

Thor snickered at this "Maybe, then, but now? We both stand here in human bodies. We are equal in most regards."

This time Loki snickered "Maybe in body, but not mind." He breathed deep before continuing "We still have the minds of gods, and all our experiences, it doesn't wash away so easily."

"In some ways…yes, but the human body…it has desires we don't' have." Thor said, still not looking at his brother.

"If you are talking about carnal desires-"Loki started before Thor cut him off.

"No, I mean the desires of humans for companionship, I've felt this before, if you recall my previous experiences, but you…I don't think you've ever had to truly deal with it."

"What are you getting at brother." Loki said, tired of Thor's attempts at being vague.

"Humans have a much stronger desire for personal relationships than a god does, and while we are human, we have the same desires." Now he turned to look Loki in the face "I care for Weiss as a friend, and you hurt her, but I think…she may have glimmer of genuine affection for you."

"Human sentiment" Loki muttered.

"Your sentiment I think." Thor said "You can't escape the human emotions that come with this body."

Loki shook his head "I am still myself." He said.

"Yes, but being human…it changes things. You feel thing differently, see things differently, the human perspective changes things in you."

Loki sighed before he responded, "I know your right." He muttered "My time in this mortal form, I feel things differently, and I don't like it, I want my old body back."

"Loki, that is the lesson, to learn while we are here." Thor said, placing a hand on his brother's shoulder.

"How would you know?"

"I've been in this situation a few times, if you recall." Thor said smiling.

Loki was sure he was right, but would never tell him that. "So, here we are, mortal." He muttered "What is father's plan? I don't remember how I got here, do you?"

"No, and I think that's part of the test." Thor said.

Loki sighed, believing his brother was telling him the truth as he understood it, but there was more he'd like to know. "I want a look at that book you have, I think it might have some answers."

"You know." Thor started "I've thought that you might be able to decifer things in that book that none of us could, ever since we found it."

"I didn't think you thought so highly of my abilities."

"Loki, I thought the world of you when we were younger." Thor said "You always knew the answer to questions I couldn't even understand. I was jealous that you could just think of answers as easily as I breathed."

Loki looked a Thor confused for a moment before responding. "What are you talking about?"

"Loki, you and me did everything together, and you knew all the tricks and answers, all I could so was smash my way through the obstacles."

Loki laughed "I was jealous of your strength you know, I wish I was a warrior like you."

"I suppose we always desire what we don't have." Thor said, turning away to look at the ocean.

The two brothers stood in silence for some time before one of them spoke again.

"So are you going to tell me how you ended up looking like father minus two limbs?" Loki asked.

Thor chuckled before responding "I got worked up and ignored an opponent that was stronger than I thought. I didn't know his skill set and I paid for it. But I did a fair bit of it to myself."

"Care to explain?"

"My equipment failed and literally blew up in my face." Thor gestured at his eye. "That's how I lost this and thing." He patted his mechanical arm.

"And the leg?"

"He took it, I rushed in and got carless, he took it."

"Well, I hope you paid him back." Loki said as he placed a hand on his brother's shoulder.

"Oh, I did, took his arm." Thor said, "Then I don't know what happened, but I doubt I'll see him again."

"Hmmm." Loki murmured. "Seems like he took more."

"I took the rest of it Loki." Thor said, "My leg was him, but the rest was my doing."

The silence came over them again.

"Don't hurt her Loki, any more than you already have."

"What are you on about?"

"Weiss, you hurt her, and I feel like if I don't say something, you'll do it again."

"Why would I?"

"I've told you, the nature of a human body will make you want companionship, and she is interested in you. I don't know how much is genuine or how much was from your manipulation, but it's there. I'm not sure if it's better or worse that you might feel some of the same feelings, but…just don't hurt her."

"What about you?" Loki said trying to turn the conversation "You and the that girl Yang?" He said, "You can't stay with her, you'll out live her, she'll be gone in the blink of an eye."

"If we were still gods, I might agree with you." Thor said, "Probably not, but maybe." He said turning to look at his brother again "But I've thought about this for some time, and I think this time I am supposed to learn what it truly means to be human." He looked Loki over for a moment and said, "You too probably, and that means experiencing a mortal death."

Loki's eyes went wide at this "You mean, we are meant to live and die as mortals?"

"I suspect it yes." Thor said staring out at the ocean again "And I intend to live with no regrets."

"Then what?" Loki asked.

"Then." Thor smiled as he spoke "We'll know what awaits humans after death." He clapped his brother on the shoulder and turned to walk away. Leaving an irritated Loki to think of his fate on this world.

* * *

Weiss sat on the edge of her bed, livid with herself. She was falling for that stupid charm again. So, what if he was handsome, well spoken, and had excellent manners. He was literally a trickster god, that was the last person she ever wanted to know her intimately.

Never mind the fact that he lied to her about his name and…well she didn't know what else, but she was sure there was more.

But what really had her mad was she wanted to believe him. The logical part of her mind was telling her she was being stupid. But her more emotional side was yearning to believe him. She didn't know what caused her to want to believe him, although she had her suspicions.

She knew she'd felt lonely for a long time in her life, and the only time she really didn't feel that was at Beacon. The loss of that had made her…more willing to try and form relationships.

And there he was, ready to offer it, after all her friends and classmates had hooked up with each other, and were spending time with their boyfriends or girlfriends, and she didn't want to intrude on that. But she wanted it for herself, someone for herself.

Loki seemed to be that, then it all came crashing down when Thor came over to out him.

She just didn't seem destined to form intimate interpersonal relationships beyond friendship. Part of her was jealous of Ruby, drawing the attention boy who had pinned after her constantly back at school. She didn't want to think she'd considered Jaune the "back up" if she never got a date, but she thought she might felt that way on an unconscious level, and it made her sick.

Jaune was genuinely nice and sweet young man, despite being such a huge dork. He and Ruby deserved each other, and she didn't mean that in a hostile way. She was too cold to offer either of them that a relationship they deserved…

Her mind trailed off at that thought, that she had grouped Ruby and Jaune together in that thought. She pushed it out of her mind and went back Loki.

As she examined her feelings, she knew what she wanted did not align with the reality of the situation. She wanted him to be the gentleman she'd meet, the cultured young man with the flair of culture.

She supposed he was still that, but he was a liar, she could never trust him. He'd lied about his name and… she didn't know what else.

That was bothering her, she knew he'd lied about his name, but as far as she could tell from the facts, he hadn't lied about anything else. He hadn't told the whole story, but then again Thor hadn't either.

She shook her head, realizing she was trying to rationalize the events to fit what she wanted. She just had to remember all his lies…from the book.

That bothered her as well, most of what she knew about him was from a second or third hand source. That stupid book on the Vikings. Loki was only mentioned a handful of times in it, and she didn't know how accurate it was.

As she thought of what she personally knew and compared it to what she'd been told and personally had seen, she felt an emotion swell in her chest. One that she found disgusting in this situation.

That feeling was hope.

* * *

 **AN: Okay, please review.**


	18. Destinations and Decisions

**AN: Okay first off, I want to thank everyone who left a review. So, thank you hirshja, Enclave ranger, ExS-DrIfTeRr and MistahKillJoy.**

 **The companion story with Loki is in the works and will be posted in the cross-over section once this one is done, so keep an eye out for it.**

 **Also, I realized this is going to go on for more chapters than I thought, so while it will end soon, it will take more than the three or four chapters I intended it to, which I've found out isn't an unusual occurrence among writers.**

 **So, this one was a weird chapter for me. It was going to be substantially longer, but I decided that were it ended was the right spot.**

 **I've also realized the reviews scare the living daylights out of me, because whenever I get one in an email notice, I'm certain someone is going to tear me to pieces.**

 **With that said, please review.**

* * *

Destinations and Decisions

* * *

As the shoreline came into view, Thor watched as the snow began to fall. He closed his eye and took a deep breath of the cold air. He much preferred cool climates, he'd just forgotten in the passing years.

The ship would dock soon, and they couldn't dawdle. They weren't supposed to be here, and there was a time frame where they could slip off the ship without being noticed, at least within reason. He'd not have cared in most situations, but the kingdom of Atlas was closed off, and they weren't supposed to be bringing anything in, and that included people.

At this time, none of the ships, by sea or air, were foreign, but returning ships of Atlas, that were away when the call had been issued. This ship had been near on the other side of the world when the call had been made, and that was the only reason they had even managed to find it.

But the trick now was getting off it without being noticed. Thor was confident it could be done easily enough. Several of them were masters of stealth, and those that weren't exactly subtitle, himself included, could manage it.

What he was more worried about was Loki bolting during the departure of the ship.

But he hoped Loki may have experienced a change of heart. He seemed to be behaving differently since their talk. Less sarcastic, less snark and generally more agreeable. But Thor had hopes before, and it always cut him deep when his brother had returned to his old ways. It hurt because he knew there was good in him, and he knew what Loki really wanted, the love and acceptance of a family, which he never had. His birth father cast him out to die, and Odin and Freyja had…tried.

But Loki's natural disposition put him at odds with their parents so often. He was his own worst enemy in what he wanted, and Thor was never sure if he knew that. He hoped he didn't, because if he did, as bad as that was, it was better than the idea he knew and kept sabotaging himself, like he wanted perpetual misery.

Thor looked at his scroll with the destination they would all meet up at after they departed. They weren't getting off in one big group, the chances of being seen if all ten of them left in one group was too great.

They were leaving in groups of two, over a period of one hour. Thor was going with Loki, insisting on watching him. He didn't doubt the abilities of his friends, but Loki was someone they didn't truly understand, not like he did.

They would leave last, Ruby and Jaune would be the first. After everyone had gotten off, they would meet at an apartment Weiss owned, or more accurately her father. It was never used and was more used for tax and addressing purposes.

But that was the plan, and while the idea of splitting up the group wasn't meet with great enthusiasm from all involved, it was accepted eventually.

As the ship docked, Thor looked at his scroll again, thinking that Ruby and Jaune would be leaving any moment. But Loki was nowhere to be found, but he wasn't worried yet. Loki was notorious for doing anything to irritate him, even in small ways.

"You look anxious." Loki's voice came from behind him, and Thor sighed in relief.

"Just worried you might try to bolt." Thor said as he pocketed his scroll.

"Oh, dear brother, I've grown far too fond of these mortals to leave them to the fate of that terrible woman." Loki said and while Thor wasn't looking at him, he imagined a smirk on his brother's face. The woman was Salem, the one behind most, if not all, the tragic events of the past year. Loki claimed to know where she was. He hadn't told anyone yet, and while Thor knew his brother was a famously good liar, he thought he was telling the truth here and was just waiting for when it would benefit him most to give the information out.

"Don't lie to me brother."

"What, I was being sincere." Loki said as he stood next to Thor.

Now Thor laughed "You are incapable of sincerity."

"Ah." Loki responded, still smiling.

"We are mortal now too Loki, it would do you well to remember that."

"I know brother." Loki muttered "I wasn't lying you know." He said, "I think I'm starting to see your affection for these humans."

Thor almost didn't believe his ears, but he knew that living a mortal made one more affectionate to them. "Two weeks on a ship enough time to do that to you?" Thor asked.

"I don't think so." Loki said now looking off into space "More of all the time I've been human, and with your…friends." He muttered.

"Loki, I don't like it when you try to trick me."

"I'm not tricking you, I'm worried there is something wrong with me." Loki said looking back at Thor. "This isn't how I process feelings and people, something is wrong with me."

"Yes." Thor said as he gripped Loki's shoulder and shook it slightly "It's called being a mortal."

"That can't explain it all." Loki muttered.

"No, but it helps." Thor smiled as he said this "You know humans, while they look like us , they are not like us. They are wired for connections, I'm sure you know."

"Yes yes." Loki waved his hand "The biology of it, it's making think differently, but that can't explain how it's working against a whole lifetime of experience." Loki said.

"No, it can't." Thor said as he pulled out his scroll to see who would be moving out now. Yang and Weiss should be making their move now. "But maybe it's bringing out something you've tried to deny for a long time." Thor said as he pocketed his scroll.

"Oh, and what would that be?"

"You tell me brother, it's your head."

* * *

Ruby knew Atlas would be cold, but this was insane to her. It was the end of Summer but it felt like winter to her. It was even snowing, snow in summer just seemed wrong to her.

She'd attempted to dress for the cold, but there wasn't anyways she could have properly prepared for the cold mentally. Even with the heavy clothing she had on, she felt her knees knocking together.

"Jaune, how much longer till we get there?" Ruby asked as she turned to look at Jaune, Jaune was trying to act like the cold didn't bother him, but wasn't putting on a much better show than she was. He wasn't shaking as badly as she was, but the shivers still happened now and then, and was rubbing his hand together.

Pulling out his scroll Jaune said "Two more blocks." His teeth chattered as he did.

The day was starting to warm up, although the sun hadn't come out yet. Summer was near its end, but the nights were still cold enough to let snowfall, but what that meant was as the day warmed up, there was the chance of rain. Which was worse in a lot of ways to someone walking down the street. Snow meant it was colder, but rain would soak them.

"Let's hurry up." She said and broke into a jog and Jaune followed suit.

* * *

Weiss had the hood of her coat pulled up, not so much to deal with the cold, but to hide her tell-tale white hair. The cold she'd dealt with her whole life, and she knew this early in the morning it would start to warm up soon, she just didn't want to get caught outside if it started to rain.

"So, what's the deal with this apartment?" Yang said as she marched next to Weiss.

"My family owns, but no one actually lives there." She said

"What's the point of that?"

"My father uses it for tax purposes and the address, I was never interested in the specifics, but I asked him the same thing when I was younger."

"Kay…." Yang said before asking another question "Is this normal weather for the summer?"

Weiss shook her head "Last night was unusably cold, that's why it's snowing. It's not usually much warmer, but it doesn't normally snow."

"So… this isn't normal, it usually warmer."

"Yes, but don't get your hopes up for anything like it was down south, this is an unusual cold snap, but end of summer temperature rarely get much above freezing, there are only two months out of the year where I might not expect any snow and we're heading into Autumn."

Yang sighed at this "I hate the cold, I hope we don't have to stay here long."

Weiss felt the same, but not from the cold. The chances of her being caught went up exponentially here, and while she wanted to see her sister, the chances of her getting caught made her question it. Maybe Loki could help her, he was a trickster god after all.

"So." Yang started again, "What's with you and Loki? He seemed to spend more time with you than the rest of us."

Weiss would normally expect Yang to be teasing her, but Yang's tone sounded sincere, and Weiss suspected she was more worried about her being hurt again.

But Weiss knew Yang didn't need to worry. "He's… trying to fix what he broke." The expression on Yang face told her that she hadn't explain it right "I think he knows he doesn't have much of a choice with Thor watching him other than to integrate into our group." Weiss took a deep breath "I think he's thinking if he endears himself to me, the rest of you will trust him or at least be less leery, because I'm the one he hurt the most personally." She exhaled and the vapor from her looked almost like smoke. "What has Thor told you?"

Yang just shook her head "He's conflicted on it, even if he's trying to hide it." Yang took a deep breath before continuing "He's torn between absolute distrust of everything Loki does, but he really wants to believe in him at the same time, to trust him."

"So Thor wants him to change, but not sure if he will." Weiss summarized the explanation.

"Yeah, and the thing is I get it." Yang said, "Ruby could do terrible things, even hurt me, but I'd always hold out hope she'd just go back to being my little sister."

Weiss thought on this and wondered if Loki felt the same way about Thor. She knew if Winter ever did anything to hurt her, she'd be mad, but thought she could grow to forgive most anything she did. Loki was like her in this regard, the younger sibling, meaning he would understand thing people like Yang and Winter could not. To live the shadow of someone you idolized, yet were jealous of. Before Winter had left to join the military, she was the apple of her father's eye, and Weiss had always felt sort of like a backup daughter.

Winter hadn't intended any of that, she was sure of it, but it had happened. She thought it might be unavoidable. But then she thought of Ruby, who didn't seem to hold any resentment towards Yang. But their situation wasn't typical, Yang had functioned as mother to Ruby for a long time.

The first sound of rain falling on her hood broke her thoughts.

"We should hurry, rain in this cold is worse than snow."

* * *

The weather was going to turn soon. Thor never lost that ability, he could sense when the weather was going to change, he wasn't sure if it was due to his semblance or if it was a left-over trait from his life as a god. But it didn't matter, because it was going to start raining soon.

He and Loki had just departed the ship, and now were walking down the streets of Atlas, and the stark contrast between this city and Mistral was startling. It was almost like the two kingdoms were living in different ages. Whereas Mistral had the look of a what he'd call "traditional architecture", looking in many ways like a throwback to an older culture albeit only in aesthetics, Atlas seemed more like the most advanced cities he'd seen on earth. He knew Atlas was the most advanced of the Kingdoms in terms of technology, but they also seemed to have embraced that fact into their culture. The city was sleek and modern, but more than that is felt cold and he didn't mean the weather.

"The climate reminds me of home." Loki said.

Thor turned to his brother and responded "The climate yes, but this place, the buildings and people feel as cold as Jotunheim. "

His brother shrugged at this as they continued to walk to their destination. They continued on for a short time before either spoke again.

"So, do you have the dreams too?" Loki asked without breaking his stride.

"Yes, I'm surprised it took you this long to ask." Thor responded. "What are yours about?"

"Typical doom bringing and end of the world sort of things." Loki said.

"Have you had any experience of the other's having the dreams?"

"No, why?"

Thor sighed, this piece of information told him his brother had been alone, more or less the entire time he'd been here "Those I spend enough time around, they start to have them as well, not the same dreams, but the same type."

"So, the people you've shared a home with for the past three years have been having these dreams?"

"No, they didn't start until I was at Beacon."

"Why then?"

Thor shook his head "I don't have a clue, when did your's start?"

"That is the first thing I remember from this world, I had one of those dreams and woke up here."

They were both silent after this for couple minutes before Thor spoke again "Why the difference?"

Loki shook his head "Father's doing not doubt, deciding to torment me even when he's sent me to the unknown reaches of reality."

"I don't think that's it."

"Then what? I've been plagued with these dreams for near three years, you've only had them for under one."

"Maybe father put more faith in your ability to decipher them than he did me?" Thor proposed "That's why mine didn't occur until I made some sort of personal connection with other's that could help me."

Loki just shook his head "Father never had much faith in me to begin with."

"You sell yourself short brother." Thor placed his hand on his brother's shoulder "You've always been the more self-reliant one."

Loki shrugged Thor's hand off "Only because I had to." The bitterness in his brother voice could almost be felt.

Just as Loki finished speaking, the rain started to fall. Thor spotted a bar and grabbed Loki's shoulder and directed him toward it. "Come on, we're getting a drink."

"We'll be late to the rendezvous."

"We'll call them, come on let's get out of the rain."

* * *

"They're late." Weiss said as she checked the time on her scroll. She then looked out the window and saw the rain that just been starting while her and Yang had made their way to the apartment was now coming down heavy. She and Yang had gotten here first, despite Jaune and Ruby having left first.

They had offered no explanation other than they had gotten "lost", which Weiss didn't buy. She thought it was more likely they had gotten sidetracked in some way. She suspected Thor and Loki had done the same, or else Loki had tried to run and Thor had gone after him.

"Hold on, I'm calling Thor." Yang said as she dialed her scroll. She stood there for a moment before Thor picked up.

As Yang chatted with him, Weiss took stock of their group. Only her and Yang has been spared being soaked by the ice-cold rain, the rest of them were now in their sleepwear as their clothes were being washed and dried.

"Where are they?" Ruby asked from her position closest to the heater.

Yang hung up her scroll and said, "They stopped at a bar, he said they'd be here soon."

"Don't blame them." Nora said as she looked out the window "not wanting to get out of this weather."

"Yeah, but you remember how much Thor can just…consume?" Jaune asked Nora "They could be there for hours, and if Loki is anything like him-"

"He's not." Weiss cut Jaune off "He won't hold them up for that." Weiss ignored the looks from the rest of them as she said this. She didn't know if it was pity, fear, suspicion or something else but it made her feel uncomfortable.

She knew what it was, that she'd been the one to know Loki and bringing him into their lives, and they had been spending time together on the ship. She never talked to him about anything that he might use to gain power or manipulate her friends. Rather they both vented their feelings about their family, their parents, their siblings, and expectations the world put on them because of who they were.

Weiss stared out the window and started to think of what they'd do next. Going to Ironwood was the clear course of action, but how or when was the question. Weiss thought they could do it tomorrow, but they would need the know where the General would be. For that, she'd call her sister. Winter would help them, she knew this without a doubt, and it may have been easier to have her convey the information to the General, she had the reputation and history with him. The only thing that worried her was that she may not be in the range of her scroll, but even that was unlikely. All Atlas military personnel were called back.

That was a comforting thought to her, with so many huntsmen in the city, and the standing military, this may have been the most secure city on the planet. The only thing that made her worry even a little in the regard was the hacking of the A.I forces back at Beacon, but the chances of it happening again were slim, the Atlas military was hard to fool twice.

But her father made her reluctant to leave the apartment. Which was a shame because it was cramped with eight people in it now, despite its lavish size. That was of course not accounting for Thor and Loki coming along as well.

Hopefully they wouldn't have to stay for more than a few days, she didn't want to be this close to her family right now. She was certain her father would have her detained at the family estate the moment he found out where she was.

The sooner they were out of Atlas the better.

* * *

"You sure you'll be fine?" Loki said as he watched Thor down his fourth pint of ale. In their normal state Thor could drink all day and still not feel the effects, but in human form, he wasn't so sure, he was still on his first drink.

Thor slammed the empty mug down and called for another "I'll be fine brother, one more then we'll head out." He took another mug of ale and started to drink it like water.

"You're going to get yourself sick if you keep it up at this rate." Loki muttered as he took another sip from his own drink.

"Brother, you know nothing of my endurance." Thor bellowed in a voice that showed a mood he hadn't seen from his brother since…well before this whole ordeal on this world. It was almost welcomed in this strange world.

As they finished their drinks, Thor stood up and rolled his shoulders and looked outside. "We better get going while the weather is still good."

Loki looked outside to see a torrential downpour of rain, which was no doubt near ice cold as it could get without freezing. He suspected it was doing just that as soon as it landed. But his brother had a different opinion of the rain than most, it didn't matter to him if it was a summer shower or freezing rain, he loved it. That was part of his nature he supposed. Loki for his part didn't mind the cold in the slightest, his Frost Giant heritage made him more or less immune to all but he the coldest temperatures, this would be like walking a gentle breeze for him.

Thor threw down some money and pulled a hood up on the red cloak he'd taken to wearing, it reminded him of the cape he used to wear. Loki pulled his long coat on and hefted the fur collar up, because while he didn't mind the cold, he didn't like the sensation of water down his shirt.

As they exited the bar Loki felt the rain splashing down on his head. He didn't mind the cold nature, but he looked at Thor, who smiled at the sensation. He didn't know if it was the cold or the rain, but he seemed closer to his old self than ever before. Loki was inclined to think it was the latter, Thor loved the rain, it was in his nature.

"Let's head out." Thor said as he grabbed Loki's shoulder and lead him on their way.

* * *

Yang sat on the couch in the apartment fiddling with her scroll. A sense of restlessness had come over her, a desire to do…something. She thought some of her other friends were feeling the same way, but they had all learned, perhaps her most harshly, the need to have at least some plan or course of action set up, that rushing in headlong wasn't the best course of action.

But Thor wasn't here yet, and that worried her, not so much what had happened to him, but to Loki. He was a snake, and the conversations she'd had with Thor about his brother made her think he may be blinded by the fact he was his little brother and might give him some leeway. Which was truly odd, Thor was at the same time the one to mistrust Loki the most, but still the one ready to believe he might change.

That couldn't have been easy on his mind, everything he knew about his brother, and everything he wanted from him. Yang was all at once glad of the relationship she had with Ruby, which while not what was typically considered a normal sibling relationship, was at least loving and healthy.

Knock as the door broke her line of thought and Jaune was the first to rise and answer it. Opening the door, the two-missing brother walked in, absolutely soaked from the rain. Neither seemed bothered as they took off their outerwear, Loki his jacket, and Thor the cloak he'd gotten from Ruby. They huge both up, and Thor was even smiling, and Yang had an idea he'd had more than a few drinks.

"Aren't you guy's freezing?" Jaune asked them as they made their way into the apartment.

"Why would we be?" Thor boomed in a voice that was too loud for the distance he was from Jaune, but there was no anger in his voice, more cheer than anything.

"That rain is cold." Jaune said pointing out the window for emphasis, his own hair still wet from his own journey here, his expression still showing signs of his own miserable soaking.

Thor laughed at this, and Yang had a vague feeling of what was coming next. Aside from Loki, she probably knew Thor better than anyone else in the world, and he had a vague understanding of his view of the world.

"How can the rain be cold?" Thor said, punching Jaune lightly in his shoulder, but still enough to stagger the smaller boy. "You are cold and unhappy; the rain isn't cold or unhappy." Jaune just looked confused at this, and Yang knew he didn't understand what Thor meant.

Yang did, in a manner of speaking, but only from a technical point of view. Thor believed things like being cold or hot were more a state of mind rather than actual sensations, and he was in effect saying the rain didn't feel things hot, cold or any human sensations. What he was saying was Jaune had felt cold because he allowed himself to and the rain didn't feel these things.

Yang had never truly been able to apply this sort of mind over matter trick to herself, although she'd heard of other's who had. She wished she could, she'd love to know how to not feel cold in the rain. Thor and Loki, she thought had an unfair advantage in this area, far more years of life, and never really having to fear the results of elemental exposure for too long.

But they were still wet, and whether they liked it or not, they were mortal, and no matter how much you didn't think the cold would affect you, after a certain point, your body would react to it.

They apparently knew this, because despite apparently being unaffected by the cold rain, were stripping their wet clothes off. Yang had long since gotten used to this behavior from Thor, and her team had as well, although Weiss had never truly adapted and Ruby hadn't either.

"Why don't you guys do that in the bedroom?" Yang called out as she shot glances at her sister and Weiss. Ruby had turned away as soon as they had started to pull their clothes off, Weiss however hadn't taken her eyes off Loki. She suspected she'd been wondering since their first date what he looked like under his clothes.

"Fine." Loki said, picking up his bag and Thor following suit.

Yang would of, in a normal school setting, of teased Weiss relentlessly for what she had observed. In this situation, she was more scared than anything. Weiss had been, when they were at school, the most "put together" so to speak, on the team. None of them were perfect, but Weiss was at the time the most mature member of the team along with Blake, but without the hidden dark past. Weiss had her hang-ups, but those were largely in the open.

But since the fall of Beacon and the reunion in Mistral, she seemed almost distant. Not so much physically, but emotionally. Yang suspected it was something to do with her family, because despite the issues the rest of the team had, they all had at least one emotionally available parent.

She was certain others had noticed it as well, and she was certain Loki had, that was why he picked her. Predators had a way to pick on the vulnerable ones, and that was what she thought of Thor's brother. He was predator looking for an opportunity. Which was another cause of concern for her, and for the other's as well. She was certain Blake felt the same way, Ren and Jaune most likely did as well. Nora and Ruby, in their bizarre innocents hadn't seemed to either notice, or to hone in on specifics.

Sun was totally oblivious, in part she was sure because he wasn't as familiar with the groups school dynamic as the others.

Loki was snake, and Weiss had already been hurt by him, and if that look she'd been giving him was any indication, she was on course to do it again.

* * *

Loki pulled his sleepwear on and gathered his wet clothes to wash them. Thor didn't bother with anything other than hanging his wet cloths over a few chairs. He's never cared for things like laundry, granted neither did Loki, but he'd learned to deal with it.

He exited the bedroom and walked back to the living room, where everyone else had congregated. The moment he stepped into the room he remembered who he was, and who these people were. Thor had made him forget it for a moment, the bar almost reminded him of old times. But he'd let himself forget that these people greatly distrusted him, and may even attempt to harm him at the slightest sign of a misstep on his part.

They were all staring at him, in total silence. Old feelings of mistrust and hate washed over him, and he knew it wasn't unjustified, technically speaking. But at the same time, it was starting to irritate him that for all intents and purposes, he hadn't lied to them any more than Thor had, yet the standard they were each held to was a different as night and day.

He thought he might have grown use to it after all these years, but he didn't think any being could ever truly grow use to being despised.

He fell back on his standard show, of confidence and a sense of superiority "Where can I clean my clothes." He said in an even, cool and confident voice, and lacing it with a bit of arrogance for good measure.

He thought Weiss made a move to show him, but Yang spoke up. "Down the hall." She pointed a thumb over her shoulder.

He didn't respond with so much as a thank you, but marched like he owned half the world and was waiting for his check to clear on the rest. He walked past them all and they all watched him, and they all had a variety of expressions on their faces, but the sheer distrust on Yang face made him think she had bought more into Thor's stories of him than the other's. Except her anger wasn't tempered by any of the familial bonds he and Thor had.

She'd be one to keep an eye on, if any of the them were likely to try and attack him, he felt she was topping the list.

The laundry room was already warm with the dryer doing its work on one batch of cloths. The washer was also in use, and he now realized there was nothing he could do now, and none of them had mentioned it to him.

Typical of the attitude he'd shown. He knew his behavior was self-destructive, hell he knew that for years, given how everything he'd ever done had blown up in his face. But it was the only coping method he's ever had.

But he wanted more than to be hated, he always had, but in human form the desire was much stronger than it had ever been.

But all he seemed to know how to do was push people away and make himself miserable.

* * *

Thor walked out into the living room, and the first thing he noticed was Loki wasn't in the room.

"Where's my brother?"

"Down the hall, in the laundry room." Jaune said pointing down the hall.

Thor nodded and sat on the couch. He found that whenever Loki was out of his sight he worried. Not just that he'd run, but that something might happen to him. Loki had a way of making people want to hurt him.

"So…now what?" Ruby asked no one in particular "We're all here."

"Tomorrow, I'll call my sister, let her know what's going on, and hopefully we can explain it Ironwood." Weiss said

"And after that?" Blake chimed in.

Silence fell over the room. No one knew what would happen after that, because the relic would still be vulnerable, even with the knowledge of the potential threat.

Loki knew where the enemy was, or claimed to. Thor still wasn't sure how his brother had managed that feat, but Loki's resourcefulness, crafty nature and his semblance made Thor think he could probably pull it off.

In Thor's mind, that was the next step, to kill the enemy once and for all. That effort however, was something that would take a unified effort of every Kingdom. While everyone in this apartment was an outstanding warrior, assaulting the enemy stronghold would take more than them.

In the past, when he was at full power, he'd have handled it himself. But this was not possible, unless he either found a way to repeat the incident at Mistral, or find out whatever lesson he was supposed to be learning.

With Loki here and in the same condition as him, that should have narrowed the list if they were supposed to learn the same thing. But he and Loki were different in almost every regard. Other than they were both gods of Asgard. He'd pondered that idea even before he found his brother, that he and by extension Loki were here to be human and learn the complete reality of mortality as humans knew it.

But he didn't want that to be the case, because if it was he'd never get his power back, and this threat might not be dealt with. If Salem had existed this long, with people working against her, then typical means of war might not work as a mean to end her.

He'd hoped Loki might of gleaned some information from the book, the future. But that hadn't garnered much useful information. Granted he was certain Loki knew more than he was telling, that was his nature, to maneuver and plan to put himself in the best situation.

But Thor had found himself being far softer with his brother than he would have imagined, after the hot-tempered meeting. He didn't know if it was his human physiology, or the fact that he now has someone who would understand his situation, better than any other possible being in the universe, but he was finding himself much more willing to forgive his brother's past mistakes.

Loki himself came back into the room, and finally broke the silence. "I know where the witch is." He proclaimed to the room.

Thor hadn't expected this proclamation, but he suspected Loki knew he would have give this information soon.

"Why tell us now? You've know, supposedly, known for some time." Ren asked, in a voice that didn't sound accusing, rather politely curious.

"Because now we are here." Loki said and walked into the center of the room "And now we have to try and convince this Ironwood to put his support behind an attack on her."

"But why even tell us?" Jaune added.

Loki didn't even look at Jaune, but turned to face Weiss. She almost seemed to flinch at this look but he spoke again "You plan to tell you sister to relay the news from Mistral, I want you to include what I'm about to tell you."

This was not how Thor expected Loki to convey this information, he'd been certain he'd parlay it into something else. Money, favors, anything he might use, but now he was giving it away freely.

Weiss didn't answer in anything more than a nod, but Loki took this as yes and walked to the bedroom he'd changed in and came back with a folded piece of paper. He opened it and lay it in the coffee table and Thor saw it was map of the world.

"So where is she hiding?" Thor asked his brother.

* * *

Loki smoothed out the map and spoke. "Part of the reason she'd been able to hide this long is the human population is generally concentrated in four locations, with sparse expansion beyond the major kingdoms. But that's not the main reason why she's so hard to find." Loki started to put marks on the map, all on the ocean.

"What are those?" Ruby asked, stepping forward to stand next to Loki.

"Where she is at certain times of the years." Loki started to date the marks.

"What, you mean she moves from base to base?" Jaune asked.

"No, her base of operations moves." Loki said and started to sketch something on a piece of paper. "Her 'kingdom' as it were is massive living creature, a type of Grimm, it looks somewhat like this." He gestured at his sketch, which looked like a crab. "Under its shell is a landscape roughly the size of Mistral, I can't tell you the layout, but I've gathered some basic topography." He turned his attention back to the map and circled three locations "These are the area it will settle into over the next three months."

Loki looked to the group, and only Thor didn't seem surprised. A creature of this size was beyond anything they would ever have seen. Of course, compared to the Midgard serpent, it was small.

"How did you happen to find all this out?" Yang asked in a tone that made it clear she wasn't ready to accept what he was saying at face value.

"Salem has informants all over the world, she doesn't have just a hand full of minions to connect her to the goings-on in the world." Loki said, which was perfectly true, but he'd also had some time alone with the relic of knowledge, and he knew things, this was one of them.

But he could tell from the looks on their faces that he wasn't convincing them. He supposed to their human perspective, something like a creature the size of a country was hard to believe. He looked at his brother, who he could tell had just accepted the fact of creature's existence. If he was to convince them, Thor would be necessary.

"Do you know anything about the Grimm? Is it simply a large Grimm or is there something unique about it?" Thor asked, and Loki knew that was just the ticket, his frank belief would sell it more than effective than having him trying to directly convince them.

"This Grimm's "blood" after a manner of speaking, spawns lesser Grimm, I believe you've all seen this trait in other Grimm?"

"The Dragon." Jaune said remember how the black tar-like substance that fell from its body turned into Grimm.

"And the Wendo." Thor added "The larger maggot forms grew them from a black liquid."

"Yes." Loki said and start to draw some more on his sketch of the crab. "There are Grimm, normally very large ones, that create other Grimm, I believe this may be the propagate of the entire race." Loki said as he finished drawing lines on the Grimm.

Thor didn't look the least bit surprised, but the lack of experience showed on everyone else face, the idea of a single Grimm that produced the race was scaring them, given how dangerous the normal Grimm they had faced were, the idea of the Mother of the race made them uncomfortable.

"But I thought Salem was the leader?" Ruby eventually asked breaking the silence.

"I believe she is, the creature, like all Grimm, is under her control." Loki said, "That's why it functions as her base of operations." He turned to Weiss and spoke again "Tell your sister this along with the information on the relic, I dare say that if this General Ironwood is the military hardliner I've heard he is, then he'll launch a full-scale assault on the creature as soon as possible."

"Hold on." Yang butted in "How do we know you aren't making this up? Lying is sort of you defining trait."

That stung him a bit, he's always thought his intelligences was his defining trait. "Why would I lie? If I caused a full-scale military mobilization for nothing, I'd spend the rest of my mortal life in prison."

"Well, what makes you think anyone will even believe you? God of lies or not, you have no credibility with my sister or General Ironwood." Weiss added.

Loki shrugged "I'm certain the General will investigate my claim, and when he does, he'll know I was telling the truth."

He could tell they still didn't fully trust his information, but the implications of him telling the truth and them ignoring it was too great. He knew what they were thinking, better to look like fools and be wrong than to risk him being right and ignoring him.

Thor's frank questions had help seal the deal, and he was now certain Weiss would convey the information up the command chain.

The group sat in silence for a few minutes before anyone spoke. Turns out it was Weiss "Let's all get to bed, we have a lot to do tomorrow."

* * *

That night the dreams came again, one last time, but this time they all had the same dream.

They stood on a cliff overlooking the ocean, with the sky darkening in a storm. The ocean raged in far-off storm. As they looked out into the ocean it seemed to rise in a dome and a creature broke the surface and here was the only deviation in the dreams.

Thor saw a great serpent, Loki a Frost giant. Jaune saw fire giant, Ruby a Giant Wolf. Blake saw a minotaur, Sun an Oni. Yang also saw a giant serpent, but it was cloaked in flames and shadow. Weiss saw a familiar knight she faced and summoned in the past. Ren saw the Grimm that took his family, and Nora saw amorphous black shadow.

The morning sun broke the dreams. Yet for those not used to the dreams, an explanation was needed.

* * *

"What the hell was that?" Sun muttered the following morning as he held a coffee mug in his shaking hands.

"They are visions." Loki said to the assembled group "Although, I gather those of you who've had them haven't yet experienced a unified vision like this one."

No one answered right away, which told Loki he was more or less he was correct. "If I were to hazard a guess the sea is literal, that some threat is coming from the sea or we will face a threat in the sea." Loki said as he sipped his own coffee "The creature is more a symbol of what we all either fear or have had some sort of fear of in the past." Those were his best guesses anyway "The overall theme is a great threat coming from the sea." Loki said as he thought of this confirming his own information.

"These visions are next to useless." Ruby said after a time of silence.

"Without my father to interpret them, they do tend to be more of an aggravation than a help." Loki replied.

"But I do think Loki is right in the general sense of things." Thor added before turning to Weiss "If I were you, I'd call your sister now, time is short."

* * *

Weiss didn't like being told what to do, but in this case, she knew Thor was right. She took out her scroll and walked into the bedroom for some privacy.

She dialed her sister's number and hoped she was still in the city. She expected her to be, given Atlas had called back all military assets, but still, there was a chance that Ironwood would send her on a mission.

The scroll rang three times, then her sister's voice came over the scroll.

"Weiss? What are you doing? Where are you?"

"Winter, I'm fine." She said quickly, knowing that the questions her sister was asking were really asking if she was okay. "I'm with friends." She didn't bother saying she was in the city, her sister would of puzzled that out on her own. "Winter, I need to tell you something, or rather…" she didn't know how to phrase this statement in way that didn't sound rushed or oversimplified. "I'm sending you something, it's what we learned in Mistral, the document has everything I need you to tell General Ironwood."

Weiss had thought on this a lot, and had decided that instead of telling her sister directly, she'd made a small document to send her over their scrolls, to make sure she didn't leave anything out and so Winter could show Ironwood. She didn't even really need to call her sister, but she thought if she spoke to her first, she would believe Weiss had sent the document. That, and she wanted to hear her sisters voice.

As she sent the file, she heard Winter's voice over the scroll "Weiss, father is furious with you, that you disappeared."

"I'm not surprised." Weiss said as she hit "send" on the file.

"Weiss…I don't know how you got into Atlas, but where ever you are, which I do not want to know, stay there and stay low. If Father doesn't break down the door, Ironwood will. He's at his breaking strain Weiss, he's likely to arrest you and your friends on sight for crossing a closed border."

"Winter…did you get the-"Weiss began but was cut off.

"Yes, I'll get it to Ironwood, but don't call me again, I'll contact you next time."

"Winter." Weiss said into her scroll.

"Yes?"

"I love you."

"…I love you too, stay safe." And with that the call ended.

Weiss looked at her scroll and wished she could call her sister again. But that didn't seem like a safe idea, if Winter wasn't exaggerating, Ironwood was enforcing the closed border policy very harshly. With her father and Ironwood as potential threats, maybe not life-threatening, but still a form of hindrance she didn't feel as safe as she had the day before, especially with her most recent dream.

She put her scroll away and walked back into the living room.

"She's going to tell the General, but…" She said before pausing "But I think we're in trouble."

"In trouble in what way?" Blake asked.

"Apparently, Ironwood isn't exactly as…rational as he used to be. Winter said she'd give him the information, but from what she said, I think it's better if we just…stay here for a while."

A loud scoffing noise made her flinch ever so slightly, before she realized it was Loki. That…for some reason made her stomach turn.

"I'm not staying in this apartment with nine other people, it's far too crowded."

"Well." Weiss started, regaining her composure "If a prison cell would suite you better, then leave, because we broke the closed border policy to get here." She honestly didn't know if the punishment was that severe, but Winter had made it sound rather unpleasant.

Loki just scowled but kept himself quiet.

"So we're what…just stuck here?" Jaune asked.

"Winter said she'd call me again, I'm assuming that until then, we need to lay low here."

"Well, what are we supposed to do about food?" Thor asked, "There isn't any here and we didn't bring any with us."

Weiss knew that would be a problem, they hadn't planned on holding up here for more than a day… maybe two. She knew she couldn't leave, she was way too easy to recognize.

"Someone will have to get supplies." Weiss said and turned to face Loki "And that someone is you."

The general reaction of the room was expected, but it still made her blood pump. The feeling in the room shifted from uneasy to incredibly tense.

"I'm not some errand boy."

"No, but you and Thor are the only ones who are pretty much guaranteed not to be known to Ironwood or any of his him men."

"How do you figure that?" Yang asked.

"Everyone else hear competed in the Vytal Tournament, and Ironwood would know our teams better than the average team at any rate." She said not taking her eyes off Loki "Thor didn't compete and Loki wasn't in Vale, and even if Ironwood saw Thor…" she hesitated here, knowing what she was about to say might be insensitive, but it was true "He wouldn't likely recognize him now."

Thor didn't seem to take the comment with any offense. Instead he grabbed his brother by the shoulder and pulled him towards the door.

* * *

"Why do you listen to these young ones so readily?" Loki muttered as Thor lead him down the street.

"They are right." Thor said, "It's safer if we go rather than any of them."

"I know that, but they shouldn't be dictating what we do, they should listen to us." Loki said as they walked down the street. "We're older, wiser, stronger, they should listen to us."

"That is one thing you've never learned brother."

"Oh, what is that?"

"Teamwork, you are always off on your own, and if you are with other's they are either subjects or targets."

"Not by choice." Loki muttered.

"Maybe not conscious choice, but you have a tendency to alienate yourself."

Loki was silent for a minute before speaking "Does the fact that I know that make it better or worse?"

"Depends." Thor said "Are you trying to fix the issue?"

Loki didn't answer the questions, instead he stayed silent until they reached their destination.

* * *

"There is no way this is enough food for ten people." Loki said as they exited the market "This isn't enough for you or Nora."

"Well, we don't have a vehicle, we'll just have to make more trips."

"I feel like a servant." Loki muttered.

Thor just smiled and was about to respond when he heard what he thought were sirens in the distance. Probably nothing, but it always made him wonder what might be happening to those he cared about. Shaking the thought away he continued speaking to his brother on a subject that interested him "So, what of these mortals, what impression do they leave on you?"

Loki just rolled his shoulders before he responded, "They are…better than other mortals"

Thor smirked at this. His brother had long held the opinion of the humans as ants or bugs, and being one of them had perhaps humbled him. He in particular connected with Weiss the most, given his issues with Odin and Weiss had with her own father.

Thor didn't know Weiss's father, but Weiss did not paint a pretty picture of him. But he also knew there were two side to the story, and while he was inclined to believe Weiss, he didn't consider her a neutral party.

"Well, I certainly approve of them." Thor said smiling.

"As if that means much, you could find value in the lowest human."

"That's because even the lowest human has value."

"You're too naive."

This was something he doubted he could ever fully convince his brother on. Thor thought that there was value in every human soul, Loki would, at least prior to his time here, of only considered maybe more than a handful of human beings worth his time.

But his…acceptance of these young and clearly flawed humans was progress. He loved them all, but he'd known for a long time almost no human could meet the perfect ideals so many strived for. They fell short, but they kept striving. That was what he admired about them.

The sudden sound of bags of food hitting the sidewalk made Thor turn to face his brother, but before he could ask him what he was doing, Loki pulled him into an ally.

"Loki what is it?"

Loki just pointed at the building the apartment was in, and he saw Atlas military personal surrounding it.

"You think they've been found out?"

Loki just pointed again and Thor saw Ruby being lead out in handcuffs, followed by Yang.

Thor stepped forward but felt Loki pull at his shoulder. "Don't be foolish, they'll take you apart."

Thor could on watch was the rest of the other were brought out in bondage. Thor ground his teeth together as he watched them. "We have to help them."

"Not now, we are at too much of a disadvantage, we must wait."

"How did they find them?"

"Weiss's sister, I'd be willing to bet. Intentional or not, I think she gave the location away."

They both watched as the teenager were loaded into the back of an armored truck. Then it happened.

* * *

Loki watched as Ruby tripped and one of the guards roughly grabbed her and threw her into the truck. Yang slammed her cuffed hands on the back of the guard's neck, and soon a vicious, if brief brawl broke out.

Yang shortly subdued, but Thor was already rushing forward. He couldn't stop him, and instead just watched.

In typical fashion of his brother, he called down the lightning to strike several of the guards. And soon he was throwing punches to take down a few more, but he was swarmed and soon he was in shackles himself.

This guards were not just run of the mill police, they were either huntsmen or of a similar caliber. Loki didn't want to leave his brother to their hands. But he knew his attempt to do anything would make no difference.

These feeling of concern for his brother and the…others were new to him. But he couldn't help them now, but perhaps he could do something for them if he kept his head, and followed them.

* * *

The armored car was nearly full when Thor was thrown in the back. Ruby really appreciated the effort, but she had wished Thor had taken a more practical approach.

"You okay their big guy?" she asked.

"Fine." Thor muttered as he sat upright shaking his head.

Her sister broke in "What were you thinking? Now you're here with us!"

"I wasn't thinking." Thor muttered "My temper got the better of me, something I've never been able to get in hand." He continued "So how do you all get caught?"

They all clammed up at this, and it was some time before anyone answered. The truck started to move in that time and Ruby felt her stomach sink with it.

"It was my sister." Weiss finally said. "In some way or another, she or I lead them here," She continued, her voice dripping with guilt.

"Weiss." Thor said " I doubt your sister would betray you, I would bet my remaining limbs that her superior bugged her communications."

Ruby felt a security in these words, and while she was still immature in many ways, she knew why. The idea of Weiss's older sister betraying her in any way, made her uncomfortable, given how much faith she put in Yang. The idea of a sibling be trying one another made her upset and she didn't want to think it was possible. The problem was she knew it happened. Her uncle and Yang's mom had a falling out, and Thor and Loki had a some clear issues. She didn't need more proof that it could happen, she wanted more proof to oppose that.

She didn't even have proof Thor's words were correct, but even the idea of him being right made her feel better. Yang was on her left and Jaune was on her right, and she reached for their hands, and gripped them, and felt them squeeze her hand back, comforting her.

"It will be fine." Thor said as he finally righted himself "We have help on the outside."

"Who?" Yang asked, "You can't mean Loki?"

"Of course, I do."

"Thor." Blake butted in "You can't think your brother is that reliable, can you?"

"No." Thor said smiling "He is the god of mischief, his nature will make him cause the most trouble, no matter who it affects."

That didn't fill Ruby with confidence, that the god of mischief was their outside help now. But, she supposed having a trickster god on their side may help.

* * *

Yang didn't know why Thor trusted his brother so much. Yet at the same time, she did. She'd forgive Ruby of almost anything, and Thor would of Loki. But still, they had lived through almost an eternity with each other, with Loki fooling his brother.

She didn't think she could even comprehend that type of time frame with her sister. But still, she loved Ruby to almost no end. She thought she might forgive her almost anything. But still, Loki wasn't her brother, and he thought she might be a more unbiased judge of character.

If Loki came through in the way Thor thought he might, then she would perhaps be more forgiving of him. But if he didn't, then well her trusts of him wouldn't change.

She knew almost of all her view of him came from Thor's rants on his brother, but a bit of reading on him didn't help his case.

She wanted Thor to be right, so they had some help. But she wasn't about to hold her breath.

* * *

Loki watched his brother and his friends…Loki's friends, being driven off. Loki hated himself in that moment. Because despite everything, he considered this group of humans his friends.

The really made him hate himself, that indifference and curtsey felt like they were treating him like friend. That said more about his life than anything else.

But now he needed to think of what to do. Help them and his brother, or leave them. He knew if he left them he'd be able to go back to the life he was living.

But that didn't feel right, for whatever reason, his life of on his own felt like it would be empty. Comfort and nice living seemed a cold replacement for people now, while the cold of the weather never bothered him, the coldness of people always cut him to his core.

But on the same note, they didn't seem too keen to be around him, so why bother. He'd be doing them a favor by leaving, Weiss surely had connection, with her family so well placed in the kingdom, they probably wouldn't spend the night in a cell. Granted he thought her sister was responsible for their capture, but it could be something as simple as her being bugged, or that she wanted them brought in for their own safety.

So those where his choices, and both had their advantages in his mind.

He pondered it for a few minutes before making up his mind.

As the transports drove away, he made his move. He was going to have to gather some things if he was going to follow this plan of action.

* * *

The Street felt oddly quiet to Loki, as he made his way to his destination. It was the middle of the day and he supposed most people would be at work, but still the area felt almost deserted.

But what he was more concerned with was he was being followed, by someone of well above average skill in the field of stealth. But he's spent more time in the shadows than this person had spent alive on this plane of existence. He wasn't so easy to catch off guard, but it was more than that.

He could feel, almost smell a familiar presence, not a person but more a force or energy. He couldn't place his finger on it yet, but he could definitely feel it. It almost felt like the presence of the relic, but this felt less powerful but more…alive.

He decided to take a detour into the outskirts of the city, where the construction of new buildings would start soon. He felt this situation wouldn't reveal itself until he was alone, or at least until his invisible friend thought so.

He found a vacant lot that had been cleared but had no apparent signs of construction on. Once he felt like there was little chance any outsiders would see he stopped.

"Come on out, I know your there." He called into the cold empty air. Not long after this he heard footsteps behind him. The hard clicking told him whoever it was likely a woman, the sound of high heels was hard to mistake in tandem with footsteps. He turned to face them.

It was a young woman, late teens or early twenties. It was hard to tell because of the eyepatch over her eye and the scars that ran down out from under it. Even with her face marred it was clear this girl was a great beauty. She wore a mostly red dress and her black hair was cut short. The one eye he could see was gold and looked at him intently.

"Loki, I presume." She said, her voice staying calm, but Loki could pick out a faint hint of something. Fear? Anger? Annoyance? He couldn't be sure, she was good at hiding her emotions.

"You may presume whatever you like." He responded letting his semblance flow out through his voice. He wanted to ease her mood and hopefully find out how she knew his name, although he had a rough idea.

She seemed to ease ever so slightly but her tone didn't change "I know it's you, I have all the information I need to identify you, I just wanted to give you the opportunity to comply."

"Well." He said in response "If you do indeed know who I am, then I am at a disadvantage, for I do not know who you are." His tone was calm, even polite, and he hoped this might bring her more towards comfort.

It seemed to be working as she replied, "Cinder Fall." She said, even doing a weird sort of bow that was more of a nod. "I've come to talk to you."

"Well then." Loki said "Talk." Now he knew exactly who she was. He'd heard of her from Thor and his friends, she was the usurper of the Fall maidens power. That was what he senses, that power, it was linked in some way to the relics which was why it felt familiar.

Cinder didn't seem put off by his frankness, but that may have well been due to his semblance. No matter how well he understood it, he could never tell how it would exactly affect each individual he used it on.

"I'm sure by now you know who I work for." She said, "And with the relic you stole, before we took it back, you know more about what's going to happen than your brother."

"Yes."

"Well, that relic, we found out quite a bit about you, and while personally don't believe half of what they told me about you, my Queen seems interested in you."

"Is that so?" Loki said, feeling for the daggers he kept up his sleeve when out in the world.

"She wants to offer you a chance to join us, to replace the man you brother killed in Mistral, or the men I suppose."

Loki stopped feeling for his dagger and looked at her. "Why would she want me?" He asked this more to keep her talking, because if they knew who he was, then it would make sense to him to try and recruit a god. But he wanted to see what she knew, and what she believed.

Cinder smiled at him, and Loki could tell she didn't care one way or another if he accepted or not. He may have calmed her, but he hadn't yet influenced her enough to sway some of her stronger feelings. And he could see her yearning for a fight, like Thor did when he was younger, eager to test his strength and powers. He could only guess she wanted to test her maiden powers against him, and if not him someone else soon.

"They say you're a clever man with powerful infiltration abilities, even claims you're a god in mortal form." She said the last part with a scoff, which he took to mean she hadn't experience the relic first hand and was being feed information, because she clearly didn't think he was a god.

"So, I take it you are here for the relic in Atlas academy?" He said, not responding to her previous statement.

"Two of my affiliates are taking care of that while I talk to you." Her tone of voice told him she thought this was ridiculous, but she clearly didn't dare refuse an order.

Still he wanted to hear more from her.

"Tell me, why should I go with you? What's in it for me?"

* * *

 **AN: Okay this last part was going to originally be much longer, but I decided to end it on a more vague note. This just felt right for the end of the chapter.**


	19. The Maiden and the Trickster

**AN: Okay this one was supposed to be out a couple of weeks ago, and I was actually more or less done before Christmas, at least with the part I'm posting now. But as it happens, the holidays come, things come up and things go on the back burner and I didn't get around to posting it.**

 **This chapter, along with the next two, were originally written as one super long chapter, but I cut it down. Now at the time of this posting the next two chapters are in fact done, I just need to edit them, which I've acknowledged I'm not very good at. But if this chapter gets enough attention, I'll up the intensity and post the next chapter quicker. In fact, I'm willing to bet by the time the third part of this is posted, I will actually be finished with the story.**

 **Still looking for a Beta.**

* * *

The Maiden and the Trickster

* * *

The holding cells were…better than what he would have expected. But that didn't mean Jaune in any way thought it was nice. They'd been separated into two groups with himself, Thor, Weiss, Ren and Blake in this cell, while the others were being held somewhere else.

Thor insisted that the fact they kept them together was a good sign, that if interrogation was coming, they all would have been isolated. That to break them down they'd make them feel alone.

Thor seemed way too confident his brother would come through for them, and while he did now Loki better than any of them, Jaune was certain there was a blind spot in Thor's view of his brother.

Jaune still hoped that this was just Winter being overprotective and wanting her sister near her. He didn't think that was really all that likely, given he thought Weiss's sister would have been more likely to show up in person. Then there was the fact that Weiss hadn't told her sister where they were. That, at least in his mind, made him think the conversation had been tapped.

It was lucky that Thor had been out of the apartment when they were raided, but then Thor threw that right out the window when he let his temper get the better of him. Jaune had seen that back at Beacon a few times. Back when Cardin had picked on Velvet was the first that came to his mind.

That was a sobering memory. Back then, when Cardin was his concern. He saw that picture more clearly now, that Cardin, while a grade A jerk, was not truly all the bad compared to what the world had to offer. He wished he still had that as his biggest concern, a school bully. Now he had gods and monsters to worry about.

But he tried to keep his cool and not panic. He really hoped they weren't going to prison over this, that Ironwood would see the need for them to come, with no communication available to reach outside the city.

But Weiss's point of him not being completely in his right mind didn't do much to calm his fears.

Blake broke the silence "You think your sister can help us?"

Weiss didn't respond for a moment but soon said "I'm not sure." She didn't look at anyone as she spoke "If she isn't responsible for this in the first place, I don't know if she has the pull to help."

That didn't ease Jaune's thoughts.

* * *

Ruby was trying her best not to show her fear. But it was scary for her, to be here in a holding cell. She was glad Yang was here with her. But she still worried about the rest of her friends. She was also worried about what the Atlas military…police…who ever these people were, would do to them.

They'd been put in these cells, and that had all it had been so far. But she'd heard stories of military interrogation and her mind was racing with all the tales of terror. Torture, manipulation, mind tricks and more.

She didn't even want to think of the tales she'd heard what happened in prisons.

"It'll be okay." Yang said, placing a hand on her shoulder, rubbing her thumb into her muscles to try and calm her. "Remember, Weiss's sister is a big shot here, and Ironwood likes us." She held her robotic arm up "He gave me this after all."

That eased Ruby a bit, but still…she worried.

A high pitch siren broke her thoughts and her heart rate jumped. "What's that?"

"Sounds like an alarm." Sun said.

Ruby didn't know if that was good for them or not, but her heart rate jumped at the idea.

* * *

3 Hours earlier

Loki listened, and he thought there was some merit to Cider's or rather Salem's proposal. A place at the table as it were, a seat of power and so on. But what he didn't like was this "Queen", sitting at the top when all was said and done. He could play the faithful servant part, he'd done it before, but he didn't care to do it again.

But what was more, he suspected this Salem knew who and what he was, and still had the gall to try and make him a subordinate. The arrogance of it made his blood start to boil. He wasn't going to be subordinate to anyone anymore, he wanted to be master of his life, and even if he couldn't achieve the grandeur of a god or even a king, he'd much rather live as a normal man with no one lording their power over him.

"Well, that's a tempting offer." He said, rubbing his chin, as if he was thinking it over. "But I'll have to decline."

Cinder didn't seem at all surprised or concerned by his response and he had a fair idea of what would come next. He looked at his surrounding to see if there was anything in the environment he could use to his advantage. There wasn't much, the area was pretty sparse, a few concert cylinders being stored for the neighboring construction site, a couple shipping containers and some bundles of rebar. Not a lot, if or rather when this fight broke out, he'd have to move it to a more advantageous area.

Before he could make a proper decision however, a blast of fire rocketed towards him. It came in the shape of a vertical blade that was cutting the ground as it the flame had physical presence. He'd just managed to sidestep it and felt the heat on his face. It felt almost good to feel that warmth, the magic in almost seemed to charge him with its power.

He turned to see more blasts, coming in like a storm of blades, all at different angles. He slipped and dodged them with relative ease, having picked up the pattern.

This girl had power, but she was clearly new to it in terms of actual combat applications. She had the hallmarks of someone who trained with her skill, but lacked proper battle experience with it. But it was more than that, Loki suspected she wasn't as accurate as she would be with two eyes, her depth perception was gone and if he was missing her dominant eye, her aim would also be off.

As he dodged and jumped he started moving back to put some distance between them. He could avoid her attacks at this distance, but if he got to close, she wouldn't have to do much to land hit.

But even then, the attacks were passing within inches of him, and sooner or later she'd opt for another form of attack. She was confident in her power, and she seemed to be forgoing any finesse for sheer firepower.

She was a young huntress of incredible skill, this much he knew, but she was near drunk on her new power and was content to crush her opponents with sheer force. As he dodged another on the blades of fire, he slipped one of his daggers out from his belt and threw it with shocking precision and speed for someone on his position.

Cinder seemed surprised the sudden reprisal, and blasted the dagger out of the air with a blast hot enough to melt the steel of the blade.

But it was the distraction Loki had been waiting for. He took her distraction to slip behind one of the shipping containers to get out of her field of vision. It wouldn't take her long to find him, there weren't many places he could hide. But he used the cover to sprint for the fence and heading to one of the construction sites that surrounded the lot.

He'd expected to feel many things in a fight, but what he was feeling now was something he wasn't quite familiar with. He felt energized, like he'd been living his life, or at least this life, in a constant state of lethargy and didn't know it. But he now felt like he was stronger than he'd been in a long time, and he felt faster as well. He reached the chain-link fence in half the time he'd expect and leaped over it in a single bound. Not exactly an impressive feat for a trained huntsman, but for him, who rarely trained this body, it was much more fluid than he'd have expected.

The crashing of the shipping container made him turn to see Cinder blasting it out the way and charging after him. He didn't think she'd be so easy to lose, she was going to try and kill him, silence him what she suspected he knew, and what she had told him.

As it was, he wouldn't stand up to her in direct fight, Even Thor probably couldn't stand up to her in fight of pure power right now.

That meant he'd have to out-think her, which just so happened to be his specialty.

* * *

Cinder smirked as she watched Loki run from her into the construction site. That's all he could do, run and hide. She'd burn this whole area to the ground to kill him if she had to, it may not have been the most subtle way to deal with the issue, but that would hardly matter for much longer.

The area was completely devoid of life. The military crackdown and border closing had hurt many business and many projects had stopped completely. This looked like one, with signs of being in disuse for some time.

That meant Loki couldn't mask his movements, any noise he made would give him away. She could have leveled the complex and the steel frameworks that had been put up before the construction had stopped.

But she had time to play with her food, Emerald and Mercury would get the relic and they'd be on their way, she wanted to have a little fun before they had to go back.

"Come on out Loki, you know you're just prolonging the inevitable."

"Oh, I don't think so Cinder." His voice came from…somewhere. It sounded almost like it was coming from several directions in…almost an echo. She didn't think the skeletal construction of the building would of distorted the acoustics so much, but that was probably why he came here.

She walked on the concrete foundation through the forest of steel I-beams. She looked up and saw the building frame went up quite some way, and realized he could be hiding feet from her and she wouldn't be able to see him. "You think you can beat me?" She called out, hearing her own voice echo, which she was certain hadn't happened previously.

"Well, I'd hate to kill such a pretty girl." Loki's voice called out.

She laughed at the idea of him being able to harm her, he was not fighter by any record or account they had. He was a slippery little imp, that was certain, but the fact that he fled meant he knew she was beyond him. "You'll make me blush with your flattery."

A clinking of metal behind her made her spin and send a wave of fire to obliterate her target. The heat was so great the I-beams glowed red hot from the attack. But she saw no corpse or even a trace of the man she followed here.

"A bit jumpy, aren't you?" Loki's voice echoed around her.

"No, excited, I haven't had much of chance to truly test my powers against a real fighter, I guess I'll have to wait till after I kill you." She smirked as she put the small barb in her comment, hoping to wound his pride and make him react.

"Well then I suppose you won't ever get the chance." Loki's voice sounded closer now, a bit louder to her left.

"Oh, is that right?" She said, laughing again, although it came out sounding a little force.

She kept walking until she got the center of complex where the steel frames stopped and she faced an open floor the size of the arena at the Vytal festival. She looked up and saw there was no steel frame anymore allowing her an unobscured view of the sky. She took three steps into the opening, and heard metal grating on metal above her.

Looking up she saw a bundle of rebar falling towards her. Instead of blasting it she simply jumped out of the way and watch the steel bars hit the concrete, a few even embedding in it. The clanging and ringing of the metal on the concrete rang throughout the structure.

"Is that all?" She called out. "Trying to crush me with some scrap? Even if that had worked it wouldn't have even hurt me, are you really the desperate!" She laughed as she called out.

"Not really."

Cider's eye went wide when the voice whispered in her ear, and she felt something push into her side.

She spun and the threw another wave of fire, this time she caught him. But his Aura saved him from being disintegrated and simple threw him back into the forest of rebar.

She felt her side and felt a small cut. It wasn't deep, her Aura had stopped the blade more or less, but she'd let her guard down enough for him to get that attack in. She ran after him into the forest of I-beams but he was gone again. It was dark in here, even though it was still several hours till sundown, the sky was so overcast that in the structure, it was much darker than the time of day would suggest.

"You're tougher than I thought." She called out "I was sure that would have killed you, but I suppose your Aura is stronger than average."

"You could say that." His voice called out, again echoing in the building.

He was craftier than she thought, and he slipped away quite nicely. Watts had warned her he was a crafty bugger, but she hadn't taken it all that seriously with what else she'd been told about him. But he wasn't that strong, his attack was little more than a scratch and had already healed.

"You can drag this out as long as you like, but we both know the conclusion." She called out.

"I wouldn't say that." His voice echoed in around her. "I'd say one of us knows the conclusion, the other is quite oblivious to it."

Cinder started to grind her teeth at this. His words fitted her view of things perfectly, that he didn't stand a chance, but with them coming for his mouth, it made it seem like he was still confident he could win. His tricks and running meant he couldn't possibly beat her in a direct fight, so that left the possibility that he had more traps waiting.

But unless he planned to fight her here and now, which he couldn't have possibly planned for, there was no way he could set up a proper ambush. He could be bluffing, but she didn't think he was. That meant it wasn't safe to try and continue to look for him in this way.

She looked behind her and wondered if retracing her steps now would be safe. Instead she looked up and saw the sky, grey with cloud.

That was her best bet, up and out.

She used her power to rocket herself up through the beams, they passed in quick blurs and soon found herself above the skeletal structure of the unfinished building.

She landed in the highest steel beam and looked down into the mass of steel. She contemplated just going outside and melting the entire bottom floor and collapsing the whole thing to drive him out.

"Do you even know the extent of the power you wield?"

The voice wasn't behind her this time, but off to her side. She looked to see Loki standing a few beams away. He wasn't primed to attack or even bother to look even somewhat defensive. He in fact look perfectly fine, which surprised her, given the attack she hit him with. He must have been tougher than she anticipated.

"The Fall Maiden's power, the power of the nature itself." She sneered as she responded. What did he know.

"You foolish little girl." He sighed and even dared to turn his back on her "You have magic, one of the few forms in this world and limit yourself."

She was irritated at this point, that he seemed so dismissive of her and so at ease that he turned his back on her. But she couldn't help but wonder what he meant.

"What do you mean, limit myself?"

He turned back to face her "Magic is rare in this world, I've gathered that fewer than a dozen examples exist here, and it is thoroughly limited." He said and started to walk towards her town the narrow walkway of steel. "You and your 'Queen' do not understand the true nature of its power. I could teach you."

"Teach me what?" She was curious now.

"Now to tear the fabric of reality to fit your whim." His voice sounded silky on her ears, very pleasant.

But she shook that away "You're just trying to trick me, I was told you were a talented liar."

"So, you won't listen to me?"

"Why would I?" she said, "You are just delaying the inevitable."

"I suppose I am."

"Yes, you are." She said and let a torrent of flame roar towards him. He heard him hit one of the steel beans as she let the fire flow through her.

The flames had turned the steel to liquid, but she was sure he was dead at this point and let up. The area where Loki had been standing was now a series of glowing steel beams, with a puddle of the molten steel forming on one of the lower beans, with the rest falling to the floor below.

"Well…" she said to herself "that is that." She turned to leave, then she heard that same voice.

"What was it you were told about me you didn't believe?"

Cinder turned to see Loki, climbing over the molten steel with no indication he was touching glowing hot metal.

She didn't answer, but blasted him again. He didn't even flinch this time, but just stood there as the fire impacted on him and washed over him like a gentle fog. He just inhaled and it even looked like he was inhaling the flames.

"Well… what was it?" He said again.

She shook her head, this couldn't be real. But he just strolled towards her, at complete ease. "They said you were a god…in human form…" she couldn't believe this was real, that he was completely unaffected by her fire.

"God of what?" he said, now he was only a few feet in front of her.

That she couldn't remember, but was sure Watts had told her. Was it ice? Or was that what he was born from or something? Lies and mischief she knew for sure, but she didn't think that was what he was talking about. She was now wishing she hadn't brushed off what she'd been told.

"It's fire." He said and his hands wiped out like snake and grabbed her wrists.

Cinder yelped at the force of this motion. He was strong, much stronger than he looked, stronger in fact than anyone she'd ever meet. He forced her to her knees, his grip was crushing her wrists. She need to do something to break free, but fire clearly was counterproductive now. But she had other options, other force to call.

She tried to call the other elements, but the power…wasn't there. Her heart started to pump faster, where had her power gone?

"Your magic doesn't work well on us Asgardians." He said looking down at her "Your relics and your maiden powers, feed our souls and return us to our true power so thank you for that." He grinned her, and she started to struggle to break his grip. "I may not be back to my true self…yet…but you've given me enough magic to do this." He threw her onto her back and felt something wrap around her and bind her to the I-beam. "Now I can figure this out properly."

* * *

Loki had long suspected the Maiden's power and the power in the relics was a means to unlocking his and Thor's latent power. After he'd found out about Thor's little action on the bridge, and his reactions to Cinder's power had confirmed it. He could do some minor magic now, like the restraint of Cinder's power and her bindings.

The power of the Maiden's wasn't as strong as the power in the relic, but it would serve its purpose.

"What are you going to do with me?" Cinder called out from behind him. Her voice had a pleasant panic in it after the arrogance she'd shown before.

"You'll live, if you don't do anything foolish." He said not turning to look at her. He was sifting through the chunks of molten steel. Many pieces had bubbled off in droplets and would serve his needs. He need five of the approximate size and shape of a small thumb drive. He'd found three already that were serviceable, but he still needed the other two and soon, he could feel even now the magic waning.

"So, you're the real deal then?" Cinder called "The real god of fire?"

"Yes, though I'm known for a few more things than that." He said as he found a fourth piece.

"Please...let me go, I'll leave you alone, I'll tell Salem…"

"I'll let you go, after I get what I want." He found the fifth piece and walked toward her. He pulled out a marker, and started writing on them.

He knelt down to her and place one on her forehead, one on each shoulder, and the other two he slid into her shoes.

"What are you going to do to me?"

Loki didn't answer but stood over her and held his hand above her. The pieces of metal started to glow and Cinder struggled against her bindings but to no avail.

* * *

Cinder had never felt this before, but it reminded her a bit of when she stole the Maiden's power, but it was pulling out of her.

The energy started to visually leave her body, and flowed into Loki's outstretch hand, up his arm, and into his body.

It felt like hours, but it couldn't have been more than a minute or two. It ended all at once, and she wondered if this was how Amber had felt when she stole her powers.

The bonds that kept her tied down faded like smoke and she tried to sit upright, but felt a wave of dizziness wash over her and she had to grip the I-beam to keep herself steady.

The plinking sound of metal made her open her eye and saw the piece of metal Loki had placed on her forehead in front of her, it had some sort of symbol burned into it, but she forgot it as a black boot came into her view.

"You may leave now, if you can."

She looked up and saw Loki towering over her.

"How…the Maiden's power can only be wielded by a woman, how…"

"I didn't take the Maiden's power, I took the primal energy that invests it." He said, "The power is still there in you, but with none of the supernatural force to power it, more or less you have a toy without batteries."

He turned and walked away from her. Cinder felt her heart racing in her chest, anger and fear mixing inside her. She needed to get that power back.

She used her semblance to form a dagger and charged him and stabbed for the base of his neck… and passed through the illusion and fell off the beam.

* * *

Loki found Cinder at the bottom of the structure, flat on her back and spread eagle. He thought she might be dead, given how drained he'd left her.

But the slight movement of her right hand told him what he needed to know. Her eye was open and her breathing was shallow, he thought she might be in shock.

"You know I was going to let you go." He said, "I understand the need to sometimes just get away." He knelt down next to her and her eye shifted towards him, telling him there was at least some conscious thought behind her actions. "But I think you'll have to make it up to me for trying to stab me in the back."

He waved his hand over her and the with a sudden gasp, she sat upright. No sooner than she was up she tried to attack him again.

He side steeped her attacks and waved his hand a second time and Cinder fell to the ground in shackles.

"My forum of magic is much more…versatile than yours." He said as he picked her up and slung her over his shoulder. She fought him, but now he had a bargaining chip.

The power he'd stolen wasn't truly all that powerful, but it had revitalized his natural magic enough that he could now perform some of his smaller tricks.

* * *

The alarm had stopped and now things had seemed to go back to the previous state of things. Yang didn't like the sudden spike in activity, followed by the sudden drop.

She didn't like not knowing what was going on, even more so when she was stuck in such a small space. But there wasn't anything to be done, other than wait.

Someone was at the door to the cell, and for a moment Yang thought of attacking the guard, but she knew that probably wasn't a good idea. They'd gotten captured without too much effort. Granted they didn't put up as much of a fight as they could of, and were caught off guard. But now they were in the base, and still weaponless.

The guard wasn't armed but instead just stood in front of them all. "Please follow me." He said and turned to leave.

Ruby went to follow, but Yang pulled her back and took the lead. As she took the first steps into the hall, she looked around to make sure there wasn't anything waiting to jump them.

She lead the group down the hall, and after a few minutes, she saw Thor and the rest of their friends following a guard of their own. The two groups converged and Yang stepped closer to Thor and whispered, "What's going on?"

"I don't know, they just came and got us." He said out of the corner of his mouth. "But we'll know soon enough."

Yang was certain he was correct in that assessment, but didn't want to leave it up to these Atlas guards to show them. But she also knew there wasn't an option to do otherwise.

The guards lead them down the hall and eventually to a door. They flanked the door and one punched something into the control panel.

The door slide open with a hiss and one gestured in. "Go on in."

Again the idea of resisting crossed Yang mind, but Thor just walked right in, and if he felt confident enough to go in, she supposed it would be safe enough.

* * *

Thor walked into a room that was bare ofwar bar for anything but a table in the center and for a familiar figure on the other side of the room. While he had his back turned to them, the pitch-black hair and green coat were all too familiar.

"Loki." He called and watched his brother turn to look at the group as it entered. He wasn't cuffed or restrained in any way, and there wasn't anything noticeably different about him in his appearance, but Thor could feel something different about his brother.

The rest of the group followed in, but Loki started speaking before they were all in. "Your welcome." Was all he said.

"For what?" Yang's voice came from behind him to question his brother.

Loki made a vague sweeping motion with his hand at them before saying "Getting you out."

"What are you talking about?" Thor asked his brother.

"I bought the general something much more interesting than all of you, I'm certain he's speaking to her right now." Loki said smiling.

Thor knew his confusion wasn't unique to him, but the other's must be feeling it as well. Blake spoke first.

"Who is her?"

"Cinder Fall, I'm sure you known her, tried to…have a talk with me. Unfortunately for her, the maiden's power does not react well with the soul of a deity." He turned to look at Thor as he said this "I'm sure you've encountered this before."

Not a maiden, but when the man on bridge had struck him with the cane containing the relic, he'd felt a surge of power. The Maidens were linked to them somehow, and if their power worked in the same way, it may have actually made Loki stronger. That might have been what he was feeling.

The door opened again, and a woman entered. Were it not for her greater height, and more…mature figure, Thor would of thought Weiss's twin sister had come in.

* * *

Weiss wanted to run to her sister, but years of trained restraint held her in place. Her own general shell-shocked mind probably helped in that regard as well. Between everything that had happened from the morning to now, between the dreams, the arrest and sudden release her mind was process so much information she felt almost like she was moving through wet cement at points.

Her sister, ever the professional solider only let her eye's rest on her sister for a few moments before addressing the room at large.

"I hope you all understand you are among the luckiest people in Atlas. To defy a closed border policy at a time like this and walk away with a slap on the wrist." She walked with a brisk pace, arms behind her back, projecting the ever-confident solider Weiss knew her sister to be. But there were small things she picked up on. Her hands were clasped behind her back, but she was rubbing her thumb in her wrist, a small tick of agitation. Winter spoke again "If it weren't for the information you gave us, and the prisoner your little friend provided." She gestured at Loki at this point "I doubt even I could keep the general from throwing you all in a prison." She said before finally stopping pacing.

No one spoke for a few moments; the Thor spoke up. "Does your General believe what he's been told?"

"Yes, if only because of the…enhanced interrogation of Cinder." She said, saying the word 'enhanced' in way that made Weiss not want to know what they had done to her.

"If you'll follow me, I'll show you all to more…appropriate accommodations." Winter turned to leave beckoning for them to follow.

"Aren't you going to tell us anything else?" Weiss finally called after her sister.

Winter didn't break her stride as she called back "In due time, for now, follow me."

* * *

Cinder sat in her cell on the floor, in the corner, her head spinning and her stomach churning. This was an unmitigated disaster. Her power was gone, and Ironwood had effectively torn down all mental defenses she had. They had shot her up with something, and in her already exhausted state she, she sang like a canary.

She didn't know what they had put her, but she'd been aware of certain cocktails that common people called "Truth Serum" that certain, less reputable military organization were known to use. IT wasn't really truth serum, but it did make a person more susceptible to compliance and answering questions.

This was different though, what it was they used on her, she thought this might just kill her before long if her Aura didn't return soon. She didn't even think she could open her eye without getting sick right now.

"You are not looking well." A familiar, smooth voice said from behind her.

Her eye popped open and her stomach churned violently, but she saw Loki standing in her cell.

"You!" Her adrenaline spiked and she lunged at him, and passed through him like he was made of smoke. She landed violently on the floor and her stomach gave out and she vomited. "Hallucination." She muttered.

"Not quite." The false Loki said. "Your power has…restored some of my powers." The illusion knelt down next to her "This is a little trick of mine, it allows me to project myself as a hologram, to communicate with person's over great distances."

"Even if you were real." She muttered closing her eye "Why come here."

"Sympathy." He muttered "You were being used by Salem." He said it in such a nonchalant way he might have been talking about the weather. "I understand that."

"She didn't use me I-"

"Tell yourself what you like, but I've been around longer than you, and her for that matter. The signs are too clear to me." He cut her off "I'm here to ease your suffering." He waved his hand and the sick feeling she felt vanished.

Her vision and head were clear, the image still stood before he. She passed her hand through it and saw it shimmer, like a hologram. He was telling the truth, at least part of it.

"Why else are you here?"

Loki smiled at her "So cynical to think I could just want to ease a fellow lost soul's suffering." The image stood up and continued. " Well you'reyour right, I have some questions you're going to answer."

"Why would I do that?"

"For starters, I could stop easing those side-effects of the cocktail they shot you up with. For second, you're going to need a friend like me, now that in a matter of days your former master will know you are now powerless, and a traitor to boot, and don't tell me you think she'll spare you. You're a liability now."

She scoffed, but knew he was right "You're the supposed god, what in the world would you need me to tell you."

"You still doubt my power."

"It's not your power I doubt anymore, it's the truth of your claim, but I guess it doesn't matter to me much now."

"No it doesn't, things are coming to a head in the this world very soon, I've seen it, felt it, and even helped push it. Right now you are on no one's side, your previous ship has cast you off and none of the one's sailing by will offer you asylum, only death sooner or later."

"So what…you want me to climb on you ship? Why would you even want me, you have my power."

"No, I have the energy that powers it, but your Maiden powers are still in you, just weaken. You still have some skill and power, but more importantly, you have nothing."

"So, it's you or death."

"Well…more or less." He smiled as he said this.

"Tough choice." She muttered, but knew her options were extremely limited now. "Say I did help you, how could you help me? I'm stuck here."

"Sweet girl, I am the god of mischief, I can walk you out this cell as easily as taking you for a stroll in the park. You just need to answer my questions."

Cinder thought for a moment, and knew that in the end, she was already marked for death by Salem. Ironwood would execute her as soon as he thought she wasn't any more use to him. What was the worst that could happen to her now?

"Alright, what do you want to know?"

* * *

Weiss looked around the room Winter had led her to. It wasn't as nice as the apartment, but she at least had a room to herself.

She turned to face her sister and saw Winter closing the door. Before she could say anything, Winter embraced her in a crushing hug. "It was stupid to come back here."

Weiss was caught off guard but returned the hug "WE had to, everything I told you-"

"I know." Winter said, kissing her on the temple quickly before breaking the embrace "But we aren't as blind as Qrow might think."

"What do you mean?"

"We still have spy's Weiss, all over the world, the metal your friends found, that Grimm killer, for example, we've known about it for over a year. We even had reports on Salem location, although we didn't know what it truly was."

"Ironwood knew all this?!" Weiss near shouted.

"No, we had anomalies, that you and that girl your friend captured, finally filled in. Weiss Atlas has been building a War machine for this very purpose since before Beacon Fell. It's in overdrive now, and you and your friends just gave Ironwood the final piece of the puzzle, that is the only reason you aren't in a cell now."

That didn't make Weiss fell all the great. "But we needed to tell you, the relic."

"Yes, that was important, and thanks to you, the thieves have been caught." Winter said, rubbing Weiss shoulder. "Ironwood is…ready for total war, he's got an army armed with and made of that steel, and weapons I've…never seen. He thinks he can end this once and for all."

Weiss was quiet, but thought that all sounded like a good thing, but Winter's tone was saying otherwise. "Winter…what's wrong?"

"The General, he's…turning into a tyrant. He declared martial law and even father is…helpless to stop him."

"But once it's over.."

"I don't know if he'll give it up. The Atlas military is the strongest force in the history of the planet. If he can defeat the Grimm once and for all, and vilify the other world leaders…"

"You think he'd do that?"

"I don't know…but if it comes to that, dealing with it will be harder than any Grimm."

They sat in silence for a moment before Weiss spoke again "I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault, it was inevitable really. Maybe it's better that it happened now, at least we stopped the relic being stolen." She sighed "So what can you tell me about Loki." She asked.

Weiss felt her heart rate jump at this "What do you mean?"

"He just dropped off with the fall Maiden, completely drained of power, how?"

"He's a very clever and…intelligent man." She responded. "He's Thor's brother, but…if Thor is brawn, he's the brain." She said, not know how much Loki had told her sister or the General.

"Hmmm, I didn't know Thor had a brother." Winter said, "I don't see the resemblance."

"He is adopted." She added. Winter had meet Thor in passing at the Vytal tournament, and while she didn't know him well, she was at least aware of him. Loki was a totally unknown factor that showed up with a powerful enemy in hand, asking for their release. That had to be odd to Winter.

"How does someone like him subdue a Maiden?"

Winter's voice was kind, but she knew her sister was intensely hoping for an answer. But in truth Weiss didn't know. Loki was smart, and Loki was crafty, but to subdue Cinder, and suppress her power, she couldn't even guess.

"I don't know Winter, I know he…" she trailed off, realizing she had to be careful what she said. As much as she loved and trusted her sister, her sense of duty was incredibly strong. She'd almost put forth the idea that Loki had learned something from the knowledge relic, but then realized what problems that might cause. "He's very cunning, I'm guessing he tricked her somehow." She said. She wasn't lying, not exactly, because she thought that might be true.

Winter didn't seem to question this and she thought Loki had given a similar answer.

"I'll let you rest." Winter said. "You and your friends will be briefed tomorrow, get some rest, I'll have dinner sent up for you all." Winter hugged her one last time. "I am happy to see you." She said.

"I'm am too." Weiss responded before adding with a laugh "Thor and Nora areis going to need at least triple portions." Winter didn't laugh at this, but Weiss spied a smile on her sister's face. "I'm not kidding!" she let a laugh come out as Winter left.

"I'll see to it." Winter said as she left.

Weiss felt…better. All thing considered, things had worked out more or less.

"Glad she'd gone." An all too familiar voice said from behind her.

"Loki." She muttered before turning. "What do you want?" she kept her cool, but Loki shouldn't of been here. She'd seen him go into his own room.

"To talk." He said from behind her, she still hadn't turned to face him. But she didn't have to, he just appeared in front of her, just…materialized.

"What…"

"A little trick of mine." He said "An old one I've recently…reacquired." Weiss shook her head, this didn't make sense. "How I beat Cinder, I stole her magic." Loki said to clarify.

"But…how could you steal the maiden's power?" Weiss said, still shaking her head. "They are supposed to…why are you shaking your head?"

"You are the second to ask that question." He said "I didn't steal the Maiden's abilities, just the power that invests it, a subtle distinction, but one that I must distinguish."

Weiss now found herself curious. "Care to explain?"

"Think of it as… an engine and fuel." He said "A normal engine requires only more mundane fuels, like a semblance and aura. But a more powerful or extravagant engine needs a more…refined fuel source." He made hand gestures as he spoke. "The superior fuel may run both engines, but the inferior can't power the more powerful one, at least to any usable degree."

"So you…stole the Maiden's fuel?"

"In a manner of speaking yes, the magic energies that fuel the Maiden's power are mine and they've given me…some semblance of my old power." He smiled at his word choice, but Weiss had more questions.

"How did you even do that?"

"I was quite the accomplished sorcerer in my old life." He said smirking "Cinder unwillingly gave me just enough energy to complete a ritual to sap her energy." He walked closer to her "The maiden's power make me and my brother stronger if we are exposed to them, she didn't know that, and it cost her dearly."

Weiss knew Thor had reacted to the relic's power, in a fantastic and overwhelming fashion. If the Maiden's power were linked to the relic, and had many reasons to suspect they were, then it made sense for them to have a similar effect.

"So…you're a god again?"

Loki shook his head "I've only regained some of my power, some of my more basic magical abilities, this image for example." He said "But I've allowed myself to be distracted I came here for a reason."

"What?" Weiss said, suspicion heavy in her voice.

"To talk." Loki said. "I've grown somewhat accustomed to…our talks."

"We haven't had 'a talk' in a couple days, why the sudden interest?"

"It's all coming to an end soon." Loki said, now looking around the room.

"What's coming to an end?"

"All of this." Loki made grand sweeping gestures "In the next few days the world will change, for better or worse, even I can't say, but either Salem will win once and for all, or the threat to this world will either be destroyed or crippled."

Weiss's heart jumped into her throat at these ideas. Winter's talk and now Loki's frankness on the issue made it seem much closer than before. "So." She began "You…you know this for a fact?"

"As much as I can." Loki said as he stopped looking around the room. "I've been to visit Cinder in her cell, and from what she conveyed to me, Salem is almost readyread to move into her end games, and from what I know of Ironwood, he's going to try and strike her first."

"You visited Cinder?"

"In the same way I am visiting you." Loki clarified.

Weiss took that to mean in this…hologram form. Still the idea of him seeing Cinder made her agitated. "And she talked to you?"

"After I eased her pain, yes. That General of yours is rather ruthless."

"What did Ironwood do to her?" Weiss asked not sure she wanted the answer.

"I don't know what it's call here, but he shot her up with a powerful drug that made her talk." Loki responded "Frankly if she wasn't as strong a huntress as she is, even withoutwith her Maiden's energy, she probably would of died, that's probably the only reason Ironwood tried it."

That turned Weiss stomach, as much as she hated Cinder, she was never a fan of 'enhanced interrogation', as some people called it, even she understood it's need in certain situations.

"So…what? You just want to talk? Why?"

"You may not be here in a couple days, none of us might be." Loki said and Weiss was surprised to see sadness cross his face. "So I'd like to have some of the comfort I get from…talking to you."

He almost seemed ashamed of the last part, but she sort of got it. The end of…something was coming. Any comfort was welcome.

"What did you want to talk about?"

* * *

"So." Ironwood said to Winter, while not looking at her, but rather his desk "How long until preparations are complete?"

Winter lay a folder on Ironwoods desk "At current speed, thirteen days."

Ironwood reach to pick the folder, opened it, and started flipping through it "Will the weapons system be ready by then or will be have to go with plan B?"

"It should be ready four days before scheduled deployment, although we won't have to time to run it through proper testing, but it should work."

Ironwood just kept looking through the folder then responded, "I want you to recruit every hunter in the Kingdom that isn't already employed by the military." He said before pausing "I also want all private security troops and assets to be mobilized onto our ships."

"Sir?" She began "I'm not sure…those are mostly civilian owned assets we can't-"

"We can do anything to ensure the safety of the Kingdom" He cut her off "Martial Law allowed for it."

"Yes sir." She responded and waited a moment before posing her question "Can I tell the plan to the recruits?"

"Not until the day before deployment." Ironwood said finally putting down his folder and looking at her "But you are asking if you can tell your sister and her…friends, then yes you have leave to do so."

Winter was happy he picked up on her meaning without having to spell it out. Still, she was worried about him. She knew his actions were for the protection of the kingdom and the larger world, still, he was slipping down the road of a despot.

But at the same time, she knew that in this situation, a single strong leader with a clear idea, plan and goal was better than two dozen people arguing over what to do. And this may be the best chance for this to come to an end.

The force Ironwood had assembled was more than just everything Atlas could muster. Recruits from the other Kingdoms and Menagerie had been gathered as well. Those huntsmen and soldiers had been harder to get, as they had to be recruited in person from their home territories. But in the end what they had was probably the most powerful military force the world had ever known.

She shouldn't be scared with this much power for the assault. But she was, there were things at work here beyond the realm of what most of these people had ever faced. Magic, and even gods. Not to mention the fighting in a terrain they could never of trained for.

But there was no helping it, this had to be done, and there were always casualties in war. She just hoped her sister wouldn't be one. She'd of forbade her if she thought that would do any good, but Weiss wouldn't stay. The only one who'd ever managed to cow her in any way was their father. It was odd in way, but made sense at the same time. Even though Weiss could overpower their father easily in a physical confrontation, he was still their father and that had an odd almost supernatural ability to make even Winter feel like a small child in his presence. She wasn't sure if all children felt this way with their parents of it had to do with how they were raised.

As Winter though of this, an idea came to her. One that made her feel sick, but it could keep her sister alive.

* * *

"I love him." Weiss muttered as she sipped her coffee. "And I hate him." She sipped it again. "How can I feel both at the same time for him?"

"It's easy." Loki said, "He's your father, but hasn't been…the best at it." Loki looked at the cup Weiss had brought him, forgetting he wasn't really in the room. These conjuring's really were quite convincing.

"I want…I want to see him." She said, "And mother, and even my brother, but if I do I doubt I ever leave that estate again."

"After all this is done, I'm sure you will." He said, "If I've learned one thing in my life, family feud and fighting never accomplish anything and in the end, everyone involved feels worse than before."

"You and Thor?"

"And my father." Loki added "I spent a very long time mad at him, and my brother. But it was only recently I've even begun to move past it."

"How?"

"I remember what it was like before I found out where I came from." Loki said, "Even if I didn't know the truth, I can remember genuine fondness from them and happy memories." He said, "It doesn't fix it all, but it helps me moving forward."

Weiss was silent for a moment, and Loki could see she was thinking.

"I think…I can remember a few times, when I was very young." She said.

Weiss's scroll began to buzz. She picked it up and looked over it for a moment.

"Who was it?"

"Winter." She said, "She's going to be sending us…all of us, a memo with the plan of attack."

"That seems, rather odd, to send sensitive information over a scroll."

"Not here, the local signal for this base is entirely controlled by the Military, it's about as secure as it can be." Weiss said and her scroll hummed again. "Winter wants me to meet here."

Weiss's tone told him something wasn't quite normal. He didn't know their relationship in detail, but he could tell something wasn't normal as far as Weiss understood it with her sister.

"What does she want?"

"She didn't say." Weiss said and something about how she said that made him think that was what was bothering her. "We'll talk later, okay?" She moved towards him, as if to embrace him, but stopped herself, remembering he was just an illusion.

"Yes." Loki said and vanished for Weiss's vision. But he didn't leave her. He simply made himself invisible to her, but he planned to follow her.

* * *

Weiss was nervous about what her sister wanted to talk about. Not because of anything other than this was outside of Winter's normal way of doing things. She had always been direct and never this…evasive.

But she trusted her sister more than anyone else in this world except maybe her teammates. As she made her way through the building, and out the front door she started looking for Winter.

She didn't see her sister, but was certain she'd be along in a few moments.

She waited. And waited. After five minutes, she pulled her scroll out to see if her sister had sent her a message. Nothing.

A car pulled up behind her and Weiss felt her blood run cold. She'd come out her unarmed.

She turned and was just in time to see two large men grab here and throw thrown her in the car.

She fought, but these men were much stronger than the average citizen. Hunters or former hunters she was sure.

"Miss Schnee, please be calm, we're taking you home." One of the men said.

They worked for her father, and now what she had feared ever since coming here had come to pass.

But how did they get to her.

* * *

Winter hated herself as she watched her sister put in the back of the car. But if their father kept her at home, she'd be safe during the operation. She wished she had another option, but she couldn't think of anything else that would be as effective in keeping her away.

She didn't know Weiss would ever forgive her, but as long as she was alive, she could deal with her hate.

* * *

Loki didn't like seeing his…friend, manhandled. He heard them mention taking her home.

Had to be her father behind it. In this state, he could follow easily, and he did.

Weiss was silent and looking at her feet. He wanted to talk to her but he restrained himself. He didn't want to let the drivers know he was tracking them. He'd wait till they got to their destination, find out where they were going.

This was…new to him. Acting for the benefit and concern of others. He'd tried to fight it, but Thor was right. He didn't know it what manner, but he was. He'd started to care, he wanted…friends and connections.

And Weiss was the one here who…understood him the most. With her family issues, the father and older sibling you both idolized and felt inferior to. The tool of their father's designs for the future, but cast aside when they were no longer useful.

He cared for her in a way. He didn't want to see someone like himself suffer more than she already had. He supposed it was his own desire to in some way to try and fix his own issues, on an emotional level at least. He knew on an intellectual level he could never undo his past, but on an emotional level, which was much more intense since his time as a mortal, he felt if he helped her, he could help himself.

It was foolish, and he knew it. But he couldn't help but feel it to be true. He wanted to help her, to save her…if he could.

* * *

"Something is wrong." Thor muttered.

Yang, who had been visiting Thor's room, perked up "What's that?"

"I feel…something." Thor muttered "Magic, I think it's making me…stronger." He clenched his fist to emphasize the point.

"That would be me, dear brother."

Both turned to see Loki standing in the room, somehow without entering through the door.

"What do you want?" Yang said marching up to Loki and tried to shove him, but her hand passed through him like air, and a shimmer came from his body. "What the?"

"Loki, how are you doing this?" Thor said standing up and walking next to Yang.

"I've gotten some of my old magic back, not much but a bit." Loki said, "But this is about Weiss." He said her tone much more solemn than Thor would of thought from his brother.

Yang, who had seemed ready to right, suddenly became much more passive and concerned. "What's happened?"

Loki, or rather his hologram, looked at her. "Her father has taken her home." He said "I managed to track them back to the family estate." Loki said "But more than that, I do believe her sister sold her out."

"What?!" Yang near shouted "She wouldn't-"

"I believe she did." Loki cut her off. "Weiss was responding to a message from her sister when they took her."

Yang shook her head, not believing what Loki was saying. Weiss adored her sisters, and she had every reason to believe the feelings were mutual. The idea of a sibling betraying one another was outlandish in her mind from her own experience. But a quick look at the two brothers across from her had offered a much different opinion on the matters.

Instead of asking for anything else from Loki, Yang pulled out her scroll and tried to call Weiss. It rang several time before going to voicemail. She tired two more times with the same result and eventually put her scroll away her heart rate pounding with worry for her friend.

She looked at the two brothers, who were staring at her. Thor looked concerned, Loki an "I told you so" look on his face.

"So." Loki said "How do you want to proceed?"

* * *

Weiss was lead back into the family manor, feeling shame, fear, and betrayal. Her sister had of been the one to set her up, and that had cut her more deeply than she would of ever thought possible.

She tried to come up with other possibilities, but it just wasn't likely in her mind. The only reason she was out there was because of Winter.

The Manor felt as cold as ever, and she knew these thugs would be taking her to her father.

As they made their way through the mansion, Weiss felt an odd mix of emotions. Aside for her fear, anger, and general distress. But she was bit surprised to feel an odd sense of relief of seeing her old home. It was familiar, and despite her bad memories here, there were good.

Before she wanted to be, she was in front of her father's study. One of the guards, or thugs, or whatever they called themselves spoke "Go in"

She didn't want to, but knew it was inevitable at this point. She gripped the door and opened it. She walked in. And the site the greeted her was heart sinking to her.

Her father, whom she both hated and loved, sate at his desk before her. But he looked like he had aged several decades from the last time she had seen him. His hair, always white, was now thin and falling out, and what remained looked wispy and dead. Her skin was sallow and oddly transparent, vein seeing through.

The blood vessels around his eye had ruptured, giving her a perpetual tired looked.

"Weiss." He said, and even his voice was weak.

"Father…what." She began.

"That General." He muttered. Standing, shaking as he did so. His movements were shaky and he needed a cane to steady himself. "He's taken everything from us...for his war effort."

Weiss didn't understand, that would make him angry, but he looked…like he was dying. "Father, he's…I know what coming he's just doing what he thought was right."

"He's poisoned me Weiss, to make me look weak." He said, "Any support I had is gone, they are unwilling to help a dying man with a boy as his heir."

"Father, please that is ridiculous." She said, although she thought he was correct on that latter part of his statement, with his two older daughters disinherited and an underage heir apparent, she didn't doubt Ironwood would have a hard time seizing control.

"Is it." He whispered as he limped towards her "I'm not the only one to have a 'sudden illness' strike me. Several other businessmen, politicians and influential people have drop dead all of a sudden." He muttered "But this isn't why I want you here."

Weiss was puzzled, but her heart was racing. Her father was dying and she was claiming a man both she and her sister respected was behind it. But she kept her poise as best as she could "Then why did you want me here?"

"In the loss of everything, and the realization of what the means." He said looking at the floor "and the knowledge I won't live to see it return, I've thought of how I've treated my family."

He turned to look at her, and she saw a sadness in his eye's she'd never seen before, and it scared her. Her father had been a cold and distant man her whole life, with genuine emotions other than anger being a rare occurrence.

This man was not her father, he was a shadow of that man. A man faced with mortality barreling down on him, his legacy in tatters.

Overwhelming pity for him churned in her stomach, mixing with rage. Rage at him for the years of emotional neglect and abuse the unflinching standards, and the fact he disowned them when they didn't follow his wishes.

But he was still her father, for whatever that counted for, and here he was, dying. The idea that Ironwood might be responsible scared her. She'd always respected him, and her sister looked up to him in way she never did with their actual parents. The idea he might do something so…sinister to grab assets for his war effort, scared her.

"So, what now?" She said, "Are you going to apologize?"

"There isn't any apology I could give that you would accept." He whispered, Weiss was sure if it was due to lack of strength, a sense of shame, or both. "But I am, and I don't expect forgiveness." He said and sat down again, closing his eyes.

Weiss waited for him to say more, but after a minute or two she realized he was asleep.

"He's not himself you know." A familiar voice came from behind her.

"I can see that Whitely." Weiss said, not turning to look at her younger brother.

"He doesn't know who or where he is some days." Her brother said as he walked into her line of sight. "Mother isn't much better, though for different reasons." He made a drinking gesture with his hand to show his point.

Weiss wasn't surprised, her mother had been having drinking problems that were severe before all this had happened, and added stress of the world as she knew it coming crashing down, undoubtedly pushed her even further.

"Is she awake?" She asked.

Whitely shook his head "In her room, out cold."

So, this was what had become of the Schnee family. A dying patriarch, and downward spiraling drunk of a matriarch, two disowned daughters and boy who was in no places to help any of them.

"What would Grandfather think if he could see what we've become." Weiss muttered, her eye's never coming off her father as he dozed in his chair. She wanted to fix all of this, and all the harm her father had done, but now, that idea seemed so far away.

If what her father said was true, and she wasn't sure now if it was given Whitely comments of his mental state but he'd seemed fairly lucid, so he was probably telling the truth as far as the loss of the family company, the idea that Ironwood had done it may have been an old paranoia coming to the surface in his illness.

"He'd probably be happy to see it all come to an end frankly." Whitely said. "While father has done great things for the company, it wouldn't be recognizable to Grandfather now."

"So that wasn't part of his delirium, Ironwood has taken control?"

"In a manner of speaking." Whitely said in a calm, even tone. Weiss finally turned to look at him and thought he wasn't looking so well either "The shareholders let Ironwood take control once father got sick. With you gone, never mind being disowned, and mother in her…condition, and the fact I'm not of age, it wasn't a hard case for him to make, especially with fear that is gripping the world."

"What about Winter?"

"Turning control over to her would have been the same as Ironwood, she'd still enlisted and subordinate to him." Whitely said. His voice was so calm it was almost unnerving to Weiss, but she pushed it aside for now.

"So, were all in the same boat now." She said, looking back at her father. "What is wrong with him, exactly."

"The doctor doesn't know exactly, but it's some sort of parasite, another they've ever seen before." His voice never changed, despite talking about their dying father. "It just sort of…poped up recently. Tiny little world in the blood, almost completely impervious to any treatment…even Aura can't slow them down…in fact, it just seem to make it worse."

Weiss's blood ran cold at that, this sounded incredibly familiar. In fact, she'd seen it happen to someone else, and he'd only survived by divine intervention.

"Whitely, can I borrow your scroll, I need to make a call."

* * *

"I'm not saying we don't help, I'm just saying maybe storming the front gate isn't the best idea." Jaune pleaded with everyone as they discussed what to do to save Weiss.

"But they kidnapped her!" Nora shouted, "It's like…like…" Nora struggled to find the words to fit her thoughts.

"Justified?" Ren offered.

"Yeah!"

"Technically." Blake cut in "As her legal guardian, while she'd under 18, her father has the right to detain her and bring her home, so long as it's not in cruel or unusual way."

"Ambushing her and throwing her in a car isn't 'cruel or unusual'?" Yang offered.

"If he claims her as a runaway, which she technically is, then he can argue extreme measures needed for the 'wellbeing' of his child."

"That's total bunk." Ruby muttered.

"We know that, but the authorities don't." Jaune said "Which is my point why raiding the compound isn't a good idea."

Thor, Yang, Nora, Sun and Ruby wanted immediate actions. Which he understood, a friend in danger was a powerful motivator. But he, Blake, Loki and Ren was much more reserved on the matter, wanting to think things through first. Rushing in without a clear view of situation wasn't something he wanted to do.

They discussed it for a few more minutes before he heard a ringer going off. He turned to look at Ruby, who fished her scroll out of her pocket.

Ruby looked at the scroll before saying "I don't know this number." She looked around the room like she was looking for answers from the assembled group.

"Answer it." Jaune said gently.

"Hello?"

Jaune listened then heard Ruby gasp "Weiss! Oh my god where are you are you okay?! What? Yes he's here…okay…sure." The entire room had gone dead silent as Ruby pulled the scrolled from her ear and look at Loki. "She wants to talk to you." She held the scroll out to Loki, who walked forward and took the scroll and held it up to his ear.

"Hello." He said.

Jaune knew everyone was listening intently to try and hear what Weiss was saying over the scroll, but it was hard.

"Yes, I'll be there." Loki ended the call and tossed the scroll to Ruby. "Blake." He said, "I'll leave it to you to tell the other the story." And with that, Loki faded from sight like a hologram flashing off.

That was new to him and judging by the reactions most the other's it was new to them as well.

"What the hell was that!" Sun shouted, "I thought he had some weird lying semblance, not…whatever that was."

"My brother." Thor said, with a shadow of a smile on his face. "Has reclaimed some of his old powers, but that is a story for later." Thor turned to Blake as asked, "What did he mean by 'leave it to you'?"

Blake pointed to her cat ears, "I heard the whole thing."

"Well." Jaune asked "What going on?"

* * *

Loki looked at the man who was sleeping on the bed before him. He wouldn't have looked impressive in Loki's opinion, even at peak health.

Weiss's father looked almost like a corpse, and if it weren't for his slowly rising chest, he'd have thought he was dead.

"Are you sure you want me to try and save him?" Loki asked looking away from the man to Weiss.

"Yes." She said "I…want some reconciliation with him, but not with him in a delirium on his deathbed."

"Hmmm." Loki hummed. "Nothing else? No other reason?" Weiss's body language told him there was indeed more, and he wanted to know before he did anything. She shifted on her feet uncomfortable with the question "Nothing you may…gain from this?"

"I…" she began "I want to fix the company, the family name and legacy, but if he dies…without regaining control or…taking me back as heir, then that dream dies with him."

There is was, and Weiss looked completely and utterly ashamed of herself, she couldn't even look at him.

"So you want me to save him so you can…get the company. If you save him, he'll reinstate you."

"It sounds so cold and…uncaring when you put it like that." She said, looking at the floor. "Like I'm some sort of greedy monster."

"The fact that you feel shame about even thinking it means you aren't a monster." He said "But…I'm surprised by the fact you managed to think of something so…calculated."

"It's not just that, I do want to reconcile with him." She said finally looking at him, her eye's near pleading with him to believe her, and he did. He hadn't known her for an extremely long time, but despite the demeanor she put up in front of strangers, he knew she wasn't nearly as cold or heartless as first impressions gave. She was in fact very caring and warm underneath it all.

"Weiss, you know me." He said "I'm not going to judge you for this, you know more than a bit about my past. You want two things that just so happen to align with the single goal in this case. Don't feel bad that saving him can help you in more than one way, even if one is a little more…calculated."

She didn't look very convinced by his statement, but she did ease up a little. "Can you save him?"

Loki passed his hand over Jacques, feeling the parasites through his magic. "I think I can." He said "You believe this is the same parasite that infected Thor?"

"Yes, a weapon, manufactured to kill. If he were a hunter, he'd probably be dead by now." Weiss said. "So his suspicion that he's been 'poisoned' is probably correct."

"Indeed." Loki said as he pulled out small pieces of bone with runes carved on them. At full power, he could just snap his fingers and fix the issue, but the power he'd stolen wasn't that strong and he'd need to use some more spells to make sure he didn't this without killing the man. He started placing the carved runes around Jacques in preparation.

"What are those?" Weiss asked.

"Runes, they help focus my power and cast certain spells." He said as he placed the last one on Jacques forehead.

"I didn't think you needed anything to do your magic."

"Simple spell and tricks, like the illusions, no. But to do something like this, safely and properly at least, these will focus the energies."

"But you teleported here, right? Doesn't that take more effort?"

"Not when I'm applying it only to myself, if I wanted to bring someone along, I'd need some assistance." He said as arraigned Jacques hands in a certain manner.

"So, you need these…runes if you're trying to applying magic to someone else?"

"For this instances, and if I don't want to kill them, yes. Now." Loki took a few steps back "You may want to back away, this is a very, precise spell."

Weiss listed and retreated behind him and he raised his hands level with his shoulders.

"Maybe I should lock the door?" Weiss asked before he started.

He thought for a moment and said "Yes, we don't want anyone bargaining in to try and stop this." He didn't turn to watch her do it, but heard the click. "Okay, prepare yourself."

* * *

Whitely was a bit surprised to see his sisters distress at their father's condition. He'd honestly thought she hated him.

He didn't know who this man was she had brought to…help he supposed, but it was pointless. He was on death's door. The best doctors in the world couldn't help him, this man would be next to useless.

A loud sounding blast and tremor running under his feet broke his thoughts. Aids and security were running to his father's room.

"What was that?"

* * *

"What was that!" Weiss said as she stood up after the blast.

"Feedback." Loki said as he stood up in the vapor. "Those parasites had some magic in them as well."

"So, it didn't work?" Weiss said.

"I didn't say that." Loki walked over to her father as he spoke. He was remarkable uninjured, as if the energy had radiated out from the air around him and not back on to him.

Weiss walked over to look at her father, and he was still sleeping, but his face seemed, more peaceful.

"Did it work?"

"I think it did." Loki said, but before he could say any more there was a pounding on the door, followed by a crashing sound and both turned to look and see guards coming shouting at them.

Weiss looked at Loki, who had his hands raised, and she followed suit, not wanting to risk another confrontation. They were escorted swiftly out of the room, but not roughly. They were only lead away to another sitting room and then left alone, because despite everything, she was still Weiss Schnee. A team of nurses and doctors were running to her father and she had the distinct impression they were removed more for her father getting seen to than for security reasons. Not that it mattered much, she knew they were being watched here anyway.

"So, you think it worked?"

"Well enough, I believe I managed to purse the parasites from his body, but I don't have the power heal his actual body. The rest will be up to him to recover normally."

"So…you didn't actually heal him?"

"No, I removed what was making him sick, he's going to have some time recover, but with the parasites gone, he should be able to."

Not what she'd been hoping for, but it was better than nothing. "But could you have healed him? If you were given the chance?"

"Of course, fixing a human body that's damaged isn't much trouble at all, a wave of my hand would have been enough"

"So…you don't need the runes to work your magic on other people."

"Honestly." Loki said, "It depends on what I'm trying to do and with what results." He sighed "The body heals itself, so I just sort of…give it a push to work faster, but If I want to say expel something from someone, and not kill them, I need more control."

Weiss wasn't sure she understood fully, but she thought she had the general idea. She suddenly felt very tired, and sat down on the couch. Loki followed suit and sat down next to her.

They sat on a couch and waited in silence for some time. Weiss didn't know what to say, and even if she did she wasn't sure if she would want to, the silence was nice.

Eventually a security officer came into the room and walked up to them.

"Miss Schnee, your father would like to speak to you and your… friend."

* * *

 **AN: Okay, there's that.**


	20. Family Matters

**AN: Okay a few things this time around, this is an actual chapter, and as I noted in the now deleted not update, I had a beta for this one, but only for about 25 or 20 percent of it before he lost power. I don't know when he'll be able to get back to help so I'm going to update this story as I did before, editing what I can to whatever capacity I can.**

 **Also, thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter.**

 **This story at this point is completely written out, editing is all that needs to be done.**

 **So there are other story's I'm working on now when I'm not editing, the Loki story is one. And there is the fact I want to edit this story, a lot of what I want to do is cut it down to a smaller version, this ended up much longer than I thought it would.**

 **Also, MarcusMebadd, I tried to PM you, but your accounts PM is still locked.**

* * *

 **Family Matters**

* * *

"Can your brother do that?" Ruby asked Thor after hearing the story from Blake. Thor shook his head, his shaggy blonde hair swaying as he did so, in a way that reminded her of Jaune's.

"I don't know-," He said "He has some of his power back, but as far as curing someone of that…it nearly killed me in this form." He pounded his chest for emphasis "Only the power of Mjolnir saved me, but Loki may have some trick up his sleeve, he always does."

"Okay, let's leave that on the back burner for now." Jaune cut in. "We can assume Weiss is safe for now."

"How do you figure that?" Ruby asked

"She asked for help for her father, not herself, and thought that Loki could come into the home freely, she probably doesn't feel like she's in any immediate danger."

"Kayyyy," Ruby said rubbing her arms in a self-soothing manner, still worried but put a bit at ease by this logic.

"I think we need to worry about Winter." He added, surprising Ruby, but also Blake and Yang by the expressions on their faces.

"Why?" Yang asked, but her tone said it was more for clarification of an idea she already had.

"She's the one who sold Weiss out." Jaune's voice had more venom in it than Ruby had expected. She didn't know where this …anger was coming from.

Thor spoke next "It was hardly malicious Jaune." Everyone turned to look at Thor, "She was trying to protect her sister by removing her from the upcoming battle by the means she thought would restrain her, but she didn't count on a dying father."

"She still sold her out." Jaune countered.

"Yes, but it was out of love, and love will make fools of us all," Thor said, closing his eye and taking a deep sighing breath, Ruby thought he might be talking from personal experience.

"Still" Blake added, "The motivation doesn't change what she did."

Thor sighed again "No, it doesn't." He rubbed the back of his head, and Ruby was wondering if the sibling betrayal was reminding him of his issues with his own brother. "But she'll have to answer to Weiss, and the rest of us should stay out of this and let them resolve it, Winter won't do anything to us."

The room seemed to have drained of energy, and Jaune plopped down on the couch. "So …what do we do now?"

"We wait to hear from Weiss or Loki." Ruby said, "Even if things don't go according to plan, I'm sure Loki can work his voodoo and get them out." Ruby suddenly flinched a little at Thor's booming laughter, reminded of her first day at Beacon. She turned to look at him "What's so funny?" she said trying to flush with embarrassment.

Thor's laughter died down a bit before he answered, "Loki hates it when his magic is called 'voodoo', I hope you use the term around him; his reaction is priceless."

"Leave us," Jacques said to his staff and Weiss as Loki entered the room. Weiss noted how her father seemed …stronger than before. Not much, but there was some color back in his cheeks, and his voice was lively.

"Father." She said with a small curtsy, more out of habit than anything. "You are looking better."

"I am feeling better. I'd like to know more about the circumstances of my recovery." He said. His voice returned to the calm, measured tones she'd grown up hearing, and while she was relieved to see evidence of her father's improving condition, she had already grown accustomed to the softer tone he'd used earlier and had dearly missed it.

She didn't know how she was going to explain this to her father. He was notoriously skeptical of anything outside of technology and money, a reason why she suspected he didn't approve of her and Winter's career choices, he didn't think highly of Schnee family semblance, and his general preference to military power over Huntsmen. She doubted he would believe a god had used magic to purge him of his affliction.

Before she could respond, Loki spoke, "I used my semblance to purge the parasites from your body, sir."

Her father's eye's cut to Loki and squinted "I wasn't talking to you young man." He said coldly.

He was going back to normal at least, for better or worse. She looked at Loki who did a weird sort of half-bow and said, "I apologize, I just didn't think your daughter would be able to explain the specifics properly."

"Well, what are the specifics, what is your semblance?"

"I can move myself and others through space."

"And how exactly did that cure me? You expect me to believe you removed every single parasite with that power?" Her father's skeptical nature was coming through. But the ease at which Loki fashioned this lie was pretty impressive, and she suspected he might have been using his real semblance.

"No, I just moved you without the parasites, they were left behind, and your daughter purged them, though I'm afraid we may have overdone it in making sure they didn't survive." He swept his hands around the room which still showed the damage from the 'procedure.'

Weiss looked her father in the eyes, and in his weakened state along with what she was sure was Loki's semblance helping, combined with what could only be relief at his recovery, she saw he was accepting this explanation. Weiss was certain that were the circumstances different, they would have failed to convince her father with this lie.

"So, young man, you can use this ability to cure any disease?" Her father asked, and Weiss felt her pulse rise a bit at this question, wondering if Loki could explain this part away.

But as she looked over at him he was shaking his head "No sir, this method would be ineffective against viral or bacterial conditions. I don't know the specifics truly, but I must consciously pick any creature to move, anything with any level of thought can't be moved without some concentration, so it's more that I couldn't move them all more than anything else."

That seemed very weird to her, and she didn't know if it was the fact she knew it was a lie or if it was actually weak that she found herself getting nervous. But as she looked at her father, she saw him accepting this. Her father didn't know much about semblances, she reminded herself. He probably didn't realize this was odd even as far as a semblance went.

He nodded and leaned back in his bed "Well, at any rate, I've still got some recovering to do, those creatures may be gone, but the damage they did and the poison they leave still needs to treat." He waved and hand dismissing them.

Weiss didn't feel like hanging around her father as he drifted off to sleep, and turned to leave, with Loki following her.

As they got outside the room, nurses immediately went back in.

"So… is he back to normal?" Loki asked.

"Well, he seems to be, just very weak." She said, "Why didn't you heal him?"

"He was too curious, and I had to fabricate a lie, I shouldn't do anything else around him, or else things might get more…complicated than they need to be. He will heal on his own."

She hadn't thought of that, but it made sense for him to try and stay under the radar. She had other things on her mind at the moment anyway. First getting out of here, second was having a conversation with her sister.

She was as certain as a person could be that she was here because of her sister without actually hearing her confirm it. She wanted to get back as soon as possible, but she didn't want to just leave without talking to her father. She wanted to know if he was okay with her leaving. If he was, great, one less thing to worry about. If he weren't, she'd go anyway, but at least she'd have her guard up.

She wasn't sure if she could count on Klein this time, she hadn't seen him, or any of the original staff. She thought her father or maybe brother had purged the staff in their paranoia. She knew her father had suspected Ironwood of being responsible for his condition, and she thought that was more a sign of a paranoid mind. After she left, she wouldn't put it past her father to fire all the staff for "failure."

She felt a pit in her stomach at the thought of Klein or any of the others losing their jobs, she hadn't considered it until now. Just one more thing she'd have to fix.

"Do you want to leave?" Loki asked her, breaking her train of thought.

"Not yet, I want to talk to my father one more time." She paused, "You can go back if you want."

Loki laughed in his throat, "And miss the opportunity to extort a favor from him?"

Weiss couldn't tell if he was joking or not, but she was glad to have someone else nearby. She'd have preferred Ruby, Yang or Blake, but she didn't want any more of her friends involved in this than she had to.

"Well, we won't be leaving until later tonight then." She said.

"Why that late?"

"Because if he doesn't want me to leave, it'll be easier then." She said frankly, and just half nodded his head to the side and shrugged. "One of us should call the others."

"You should do it; I don't think they'd believe a word out of my mouth," Loki said, with a sigh.

She knew he was probably right, but she didn't want to say that. She felt bad for him, but by his own admission, he'd earned his reputation, and probably wasn't going to ever truly get away from it.

She took out her scroll and thought about who would be best to call. Ruby came to mind first, but her partner's excitement might not be the best to convey the message. She decided to call Blake, whom she believed to be the most level-headed person in the group apart from maybe Ren, but she didn't have the rapport with him she had with Blake.

Her decision made, she dialed the number.

Blake felt her scroll vibrate in her pocket. Pulling it out she looked at the caller ID and saw it was Weiss. She looked up to everyone staring at her, and she just said: "It's Weiss." Before answering the call "Hello?"

"Blake?"

"Yes?"

"It's Weiss, I'm just calling to check in. Loki told me you told everyone what was happening?"

"Yes, did it work?"

"It looks like it, but I just wanted to let you know that we'll be heading back tonight."

"Tonight? Why so late?"

"I'm not sure if father will be willing to let me leave again. If he's not, I'd rather slip out with as little fuss as possible."

"Can't Loki just …teleport you back?" Blake asked and was greeted by silence. "Weiss?"

"Sorry, I just had to ask Loki something," Weiss said, and Blake smiled at the idea that the thought hadn't even occurred to Weiss, as simple as it was. Weiss contented "He said he can't handle two people, at least not safely. Better to just wait."

"All right," Blake said, not sure what else to say.

"We'll see you tonight then," Weiss said before adding "Goodbye, and …take care."

"Take care, Weiss," Blake added and ended the call. She turned to look at everyone to report "They're fine, and they think it worked with her father." She said as she hid the vague sense of disappointment at that idea, as bad as that made her feel about herself; she held no love for the man, and any concern about him was only a concern for Weiss. "They'll be back tonight, or at least that's the plan."

"Why so late?" Ruby asked.

"Weiss isn't sure if her father will be okay with the idea of her leaving again, and if he isn't, she'd rather slip out as quietly as possible."

"Like he could stop her," Yang muttered, and Blake knew she was right, physically, Jacques won't be able to stop her, but she doubted Weiss would want to cause more fuss than necessary.

Her scroll hummed again, she looked at it, wondering if it was Weiss again, but it soon became clear that wasn't the case, as everyone's else scrolls went off, some were vibrating, others were ringing their tones.

Looking down, she saw it was a document sent by Winter. A slight twinge of irritation came to her at the thought of Weiss' sister, but she pushed the thoughts aside, knowing this had to be important, and opened the document. It took her a moment to realize it was a plan detailing the inevitable assault.

"Is this their plan?" Jaune said to the room rather than to anyone in particular.

Blake wasn't sure what his tone meant, but she too wondered what Ironwood was planning. From what she was gathering, the plan involved, somehow, driving the Grimm where the enemy had their base from the ocean floor to the surface.

How that would even be managed, she had no clue, the thing was enormous, there was no way conventionally to harm it, as far as she knew. But even if they did, the fallout of forcing such a creature off the sea floor would cause problems for everyone in the ocean and shores nearby.

Their part, however, which was all the document did in full detail, was far less important than she would have thought. They would to take part in the third wave attack; after the first two groups had already landed, and their job will be to guard the beachhead.

It was almost insulting, after everything they have been through, along with how close they were to all of this, to be relegated to such a small job in the overall scene of things, it didn't seem right. But arguing the point would probably get them thrown off the mission altogether. This wasn't something they could just run off and join up when they felt like it, this huge military operation was under Ironwood's command and if he didn't want them there, they wouldn't.

"This isn't right." Sun said, "After all this, we're guarding the exit."

"It's still an important job." Ren spoke up "If something goes wrong, that's the means of escape."

"Still," Sun said, "We should get chance to see it to the end."

"I'm sure many people feel the same way." Thor said, "Everyone thinks they're the heroes of their own stories."

"Yeah, but after everything we've seen and done, we're closer to this than most."

"True." Thor said, "But Ironwood probably wants people who are more experienced, and closer to him, on the front lines."

Blake listened to the exchange and agreed with both of them, yet she knew this was situation was one where playing the game with the General was necessary to get on the mission.

"Sun's going down," Loki said, staring out the window of the living room.

"I can see that," Weiss said, a bit of a snap in her voice.

"I'm just letting you know I'm going to leave soon, you can come if you want, but you better talk to your father soon."

She knew that, but he hadn't called for them, and she dreaded going to him alone. She wanted to ask Loki to come with her, but she needed to get over this on her own. She checked her scroll for the time, and while 'leaving in the dark' was a vague term, she'd planned to go as soon as it was completely dark outside.

She looked at Loki as he watched the sun go down. "It will be over soon." He said

"I know."

"Assuming we live, what comes next?"

"If my father reinstates me as heiress, I'll fix my family's name. I hope saving his life will endear him to that end." She sighed and stood up. "What about you?"

"I don't know, maybe your father will give me a job." He said with a shadow of a smile on his face.

"I'll ask him." She said smiling and set off to see her father.

"Good luck." Was all he said.

Weiss found her father sitting up in his bed. He was still thin and pale, but his eyes were back to their sharp and aware state.

"Weiss." Was all he said when she entered. He was working on a tablet, which he set down on his bed "Can I help you?"

"Yes." She said before taking a deep breath "I want to leave and go back to the base with my friends and Winter."

Her father didn't respond for a few moments, then he spoke again "You know your sister is the one who had me come and get you."

"I've suspected it," Weiss said, and she hid the pain inside her well.

"I know you hate me." He said, in an uncomfortably unfeeling voice. "And with your little friend out there, I doubt I could keep you here." He picked up his tablet and started working again "Leave if you wish."

The cold, dismissive nature made her uncomfortable, and now that she had her answer, she had a few more things to ask him.

"Do you remember what you said to me when I first got here?"

"Yes, what of it?"

"Did you mean any of it? Or was it just a disease-addled brain talking?"

He stopped for a moment, looked up at her and spoke, "It doesn't matter now."

"It does to me!" She said, her voice getting a bit louder "Are you sorry?"

"Yes." He said curtly "Tell your sister that when you see her, now if you don't mind I have work to do to try and get our family assets back from Ironwood."

The fact he said it like he was ordering takeout made her doubt his sincerity. She quickly reminded herself he was never emotional and outside of anger, he was always so cold and logical. The fact he was letting her go of her own free will made her hope that he was sincere, if not as emotional as she would have liked.

"Well then…I'll be off, I don't know if you're aware of what going to happen, but –"

"I am aware; Ironwoods security isn't as tight as he thinks it is, at least not when it comes to our family."

"Yes well …I just wanted to say …I don't hate you." She wanted to say she loved him, she did, but he'd hurt her too much over the years for her to say it out loud to him, at least for now.

He looked up at her for a moment, then went back to work.

She wanted to ask about her position in the family business, but that seemed to lack any tact, and besides, it might not matter in a few days anyway. She turned to leave, but her father spoke

"How do you know that young man who helped me?"

She turned to look at her father "His brother went to Beacon." Which was true.

"I'd like to talk to him before you two leave."

"Why?"

"He saved my life, I need to properly thank him."

Suspicious of the request, but didn't seem much harm that could be done. "I'll send him in."

Weiss waited outside her father's room, waiting for Loki. They had to be talking about something; saying thank you shouldn't be taking ten minutes. Her mind couldn't help but think one or both of them are trying to get something from the other.

She chose to ignore the desire to eavesdrop, knowing it was improper to do so; she waited. The door eventually opened, and Loki walked out and said, "Are you ready to go?"

She nodded and asked, "What were you two talking about?"

"Oh, this and that." Was the only response he gave and started walking down the hall.

Winter sat in her office, wondering about what she did. She felt terrible betraying her sister's trust, but if she lived, she could hate her for the rest of it.

Her scrolled hummed, taking a look at it she saw it was Weiss. She really didn't want to answer it, but there was no point putting it off.

"Hello?"

"Winter, it's Weiss, I'm on my way back, we need to talk when I get there."

"Wait, Weiss did you escape again; you know father will-"

"No, he let me go."

Winter felt like she'd been poleaxed. Let her go? That did not fit with her father's previous behavior. "Why?"

"We'll discuss that when we see each other, but I have to ask, did you know he was sick?"

Well, she had heard. "Yes, was that why he let you leave?"

Her sister ignored her and continued "Did you know how bad it was?"

"It was bad enough he had to step down from his position of CEO." Was all she said, because, in truth, she didn't know the full extent of what her father had contracted, but knew he'd moved out of the public light to recover.

"We'll talk when I see you," Weiss said and cut the call. Her sister was mad at her, and now it was for nothing. If their father let her go, then all her plan had done was alienate her sister, the only real family she had.

She wanted someone to be mad at, but there was no one to blame but herself. She could be angry at her father, but she didn't feel it was justified, given he'd finally done what she wanted him to do for years, given her sister freedom.

She would have to answer to Weiss, which felt ridiculous, she was the older sister, yet she felt like a child afraid of being scolded.

She would just have to face it.

"Brother, Weiss," Thor welcomed the two.

"Thor." Weiss responded, nodding to him "Are you the welcoming party?"

"After a fashion, but more for my brother only, I have some questions for him, and I assume you have some for your sister."

Weiss nodded and without so much as another word left to attend to her business. Thor forgave the mild rudeness given she had a hard task ahead.

Thor turned to Loki once Weiss was out of earshot and said "So, did you, actually do it?"

"After a fashion, yes."

Thor raised an eyebrow "What is that supposed to mean?"

"The creatures have been expunged from his body, but they left some damage and venom in him I was not able to cure, at least in one treatment."

Thor rubbed his chin, having experienced the same issues with his own time with the parasites, he wondered how a man weaker than himself, at least physically, had survived as long as he did.

Loki seemed to read his mind, and for a moment Thor thought he may in fact be able to "He didn't have an awoken Aura, those creatures feed on it, so oddly enough, him being weaker slowed the progression."

"So, what did you tell him? I doubt he'd believe you used conventional treatment to heal him."

"I made up a story about my semblance being able to move them out of his body, laced with some my actual semblance, he believed it easily enough." Loki looked at him "Enough small talk, what is it you really want to know?"

Thor smiled at his brother, cutting through to the matter at hand. "Were there any side effects to this? Could your body handle it?"

His brother's eye's widened for a fraction of a second, but soon returned to normal. Loki looked around to see if there was anyone else nearby, and once the coast was clear, he held out his arm and rolled up his sleeve.

On his forearm, halfway between his wrist and elbow was what looked like a burn, but only a vague sense. The skin was black and cracked like dry earth, with a yellow puss seeping out of the cracks.

"Loki…what happened?"'

"I'm afraid this energy I've taken…is fighting against my body."

"I thought it made you stronger, why would it react this way?"

"I've separated it from the power that was meant to hold it, it's…unstable and unpredictable, during the procedure I used to save Weiss's father, I experience a feedback that nearly blew the room to pieces, even with Runes to focus it."

"Can you heal it?" Thor asked but Loki was shaking his head

"I'm afraid to try, If I try to undo what it did, I may make it worse."

"This didn't happen when I used the relic's power…"

"You used it very briefly, I've turned my body container for the pure energy, and I'm afraid it may not hold up without it being properly focused."

"Like the Maiden's power." Thor said

"Exactly, it's almost like it's alive and wants to be reunited with the power it was meant fuel, and it burns against any other use."

"You need to get rid of it."

Loki just laughed "Not likely, I just need to keep it simple, I may not be able to do the magic I would like, but it's still better than what I was able to do."

"Brother…"

"If I let it go, in all likely hood it will return to Cinder, better I keep it contained for now."

Thor didn't disagree with that in a general sense, but the injury Loki had sustained looked bad, and in all reality, the spell he'd attempted to weave wasn't all that powerful. If he tried something stronger, it would likely kill him.

"Don't worry brother." Loki said, putting hand on Thor's shoulder "You know me, I'm pure self-preservation, if I thought it would kill me, I'd get rid of it." He smiled a walked into the base.

Thor wasn't convinced, had this been the old Loki, he'd have bought the line. But he'd changed, in some subtle way he couldn't put his finger on, and while he wasn't sure he'd ever trust him fully, it was odd to think his brother was being deceptive in some sense of altruism.

Weiss stood outside the door of Winter's office. She'd been there for five minutes and hadn't knocked yet. But there was no sense in putting it off, better to clear the air now and be done with it.

She knocked and her sister's familiar voice called "Enter." Weiss entered to see her sister was sitting at her desk, and didn't look surprised to see her sister.

"Weiss." Was all she was greeted with.

"Winter." Was all she responded with.

Winter took a deep breath and exhaled slowly "No point in pretending, you and both know why you here."

"Why did you do it?"

"I…wanted to protect you, from the inevitable conflict to come."

"So, you sold me out to father?"

"He's the only one who could ever really stop you." She laughed lightly at this "He picked a fine time to stop it."

"Winter." Wiess said "I don't want to be mad at you, especially with…what could happen."

"I don't want you to be mad at me." Winter responded, "I just want you to know I only wanted to keep you safe."

"I can look after myself."

"I know, but that won't keep you safe, you should know that better than most of huntresses in training, you've lost friends, who were even more talented and competent than you, and you've seen other's with very near misses."

Wiess didn't responded at first, but eventually responded "I know."

"Which is why I hoped you understand, in this line of work, it's not so much if as when."

"Maybe…but you should also know I can't let my friends go while I stay."

Winter nodded, of course she knew this, which was why she'd gone the route she did. Her only other option would be to get Ironwood to pull her off the mission, but he wasn't likely to sacrifice any assets so close the operation.

"Weiss, I can't undo what I did, and frankly I don't regret it, I'd do it again if I thought it would work." It hurt her to see her sister's face, which was tearing up and twisting with pain. "I'd do anything to keep you alive Weiss, and won't lie about that." Her sister now had tears running down her face, but was keeping her composure otherwise "I'm sorry I hurt you, and I'll never forgive myself in that regard, but I'm sure you understand the desire to keep someone you love safe at any cost." Weiss wiped her tears away, and turned to leave but Winter was up and already hugging her. "I'm sorry I've hurt you."

"Father…" Weiss started.

"What?" Winter said, breaking the embrace and looking at her sister.

"He…said to tell you her…regretted his decisions with us."

Winter blinked and shook her head "What?"

"He was a bit delirious when he said it, but he…clarified when he was more lucid."

Winter was now trying to reconcile her father's reconciliation along with trying to console and fix issues with her sister. "You're sure?"

"Yes, he was much better by the time we left." Weiss looked her in the eyes "He thinks Ironwood poisoned him."

Winter scoffed despite herself, "He wouldn't do such a thing."

"Winter, what father was sick with, is a weaponized parasite, I've seen it used before."

That was disturbing, and there weren't many people in the world who could have access to bio-weapons like that. "Ironwood still wouldn't-"

"I don't agree with him." Weiss said "I believe he's correct that someone poisoned him, but I don't think it was Ironwood or anyone else in Atlas, this was a weapon of one of Salem's agents."

Family matter's fell to the back of Winter's mind, and she thought that might have been Weiss way to disengage from the conversation, but regardless of the reason, this needed to be explored.

"But, why would the enemy want to harm father?"

Weiss shrugged "I couldn't say, but if you don't mind, I want to check in with my friends."

Winter knew the conversation was more or less over at this point, but she needed to know Weiss understood her. "Weiss, you understand why I did what I did." She put her hand on her sister's shoulder

"I understand." Weiss moved slowly removed her hand from her shoulder "But, I don't approve of it. I'm not mad at you, but I think we need to spend some time apart before we can…get back to normal."

"I understand." Winter said, upset but happy she'd had as much progress as she did. "It's been a busy couple of days, rest up a bit."

Weiss just nodded and turned to leave the office.

Loki looked in the mirror in his bathroom. The 'blight' as he decided to call it, was far worse than he'd lead Thor to believe. The patch on his arm wasn't the only, or the first of it to appear. The first, he hadn't even realized it, had been when he teleported to the Schnee manor. It had been a burning sensation across his stomach, and at the time he'd just thought his body wasn't used to the sensation.

The patch he had shown Thor was the newest as far as he knew, it was certainly the most recent in terms of what he actually felt.

Now the blight was on his upper arms, across his back, and on his right thigh. The thing was they didn't feel nearly as bad as it looked like it should. He didn't know if it was due to dead nerves or a side effect of the magic. He'd have a talk with Cinder, from what he understood she'd had a similar situation, while not exact, there were some common threads.

The difference being she outright stolen half the Maiden's power, the abilities and energy. He'd just taken the energy, and his mind went back to the fuel comparison he'd made before. It now seemed he was using the improper fuel for this engine and he was tearing it up as a result. He'd have to be careful from now on at least until he fully understood what was happening.

A knock at the door forced him to stop his examination. "One moment!" he called and pulled on a long-sleeve shirt to cover the marks, he'd have to dress them soon otherwise the discharge would seep through after enough time. He went to the door and opened and was surprised to see Yang standing there, and for once she was glaring daggers at him. "Ms. Xiao Long." He said politely enough but was having a hard time hiding his confusion. "To what do I owe the honor."

"I wanted to talk to you." She said and marched into his room without invitation.

"Please come in." Loki said closing the door behind her. Yang sat on the couch throwing her arms over the back of the couch and kicked her feet up on the coffee table. "Make yourself comfortable." He added. "What did you want to talk about?"

Yang didn't say anything at first, she just looked around the room before she said, "Did you really save Weiss's dad?"

"Maybe." He said walking back into the room "I purged the cause, but the effects will be with him for some time, and I'm doubtful if he'll ever fully recover, he wasn't the most robust individual I've ever seen."

"Yeah." Yang half laughed "Weiss and her sister didn't get their fighting prowess from him."

"No, I understand it's from their mother's side, even if she hasn't been the most impressive."

"Why did you help him?"

Loki raised an eyebrow to this "Why wouldn't I?"

"You aren't exactly Mr. Altruist, and he's not exactly the most deserving of help, after everything Blake told me he's at least partially responsible for."

Loki didn't respond at first, he just stared at her "Why does it matter to you?"

Now Yang went silent, but only for a few seconds "I don't trust you."

"Ah."

"Why did you do it?"

"Would you believe me if I said I did it because Weiss asked me to?"

"No."

"Well, then…" he took a deep breath and let out a sigh "Would you believe anything I said?"

"Not unless it's shifty or self-serving."

Loki narrowed his eyes and said, "Why do you distrust me so much?"

"You know why."

"God of lies, right." He looked at her, and he could tell something was off. She wasn't being totally honest. While Thor was sensitive to weather patterns even in his human form, he had an almost preternatural ability to tell when someone was being deceptive. "Why are you really here?"

The change in Yang's body language was subtle, but totally clear to him. "I did want to know why you saved him, given…well you being you and him being him."

"Weiss asked." He said. "But you're here for more."

"Thor has…told me a bit about your dad, and I read a bit about him." She took a deep breath "You don't have…like any hang-ups with neglectful parents?"

"I… might, but I didn't help Jacques for his own sake." He looked at her and noticed her splayed out posture had compressed into something more guarded. Her feet were down and she had her arms crossed over her chest. "You have some parental issues as well, yes?"

Yang shrugged and said "Yeah, my mom…" She looked him in the eye "Thor tell you that?"

"Well, yes, but he wasn't the only one, and it was all just in passing, I pieced the rest together." He said "We aren't our parents, and I am a firm believer that children don't have to become their parents, Weiss and her sister are a fine example of that."

"Wished you'd tell Thor that." Yang said putting her hands laced behind her head "He's constantly afraid of making the same mistakes your dad made."

"You talk about this?"

"Well, not a lot, but it does come up."

Loki felt this was closer to what she really wanted to talk about. "I helped him to help Weiss, but if I'm being honest, I the idea of the man being indebted to me…well it's sure to be useful for the future."

"There it is." Yang said, a small sense of triumphed in her voice, but her other line of thought had drained some of the bravado she'd come in with.

"Now that I've been honest with you, how about you be honest with me?"

"What are you talking about?"

"God of lies, I can tell when I'm being deceived." He finally took a seat in the chair opposite the couch. "Something is on your mind, and for reasons that elude me, you've come to me."

Yang clammed up at this, and the fact she didn't get up and leave after hearing what she claimed she wanted to hear, this confirmed she came here for some other reason, or at least some additional reason.

"You and your brother, me and Weiss, we all have…parent issues, and this thing with Weiss's dad kind of brought it all together in my mind."

"I need a drink, you can keep talking." Loki said as he walked to the small kitchen and grabbed two beers. This was more to dull his own pain, because while the blight marks weren't as painful as they looked, that didn't mean they didn't still hurt…well more ache at this point. He'd of like something stronger, but that may raise questions, maybe not of his condition, but of some underlying issue.

"I just, wanted…you said you don't think children have to become their parents, but what if we don't have a choice?"

Loki placed an open beer in front of her and sipped his own "Why ask me? Why not Thor."

She shrugged "Thor…for all his family issues, didn't get abandoned by a parent who didn't want him." She rolled her shoulders "And despite it all, even you'd have to admit, becoming like your father, Odin I mean, wouldn't necessarily be bad. I get he's callus, but from what I understand, he's generally a good guy."

"Yes… Good King Odin." Loki muttered. As much as his father aggravated him and foiled him, he was generally a wise and just ruler. Still, he didn't approve of what his father had done with him as a child, making him a tool and planning to make him a puppet king. He was so focused on the bigger picture, he seemed to forget his children had feelings and emotions. It made him a great king, but lacking in the fathering department.

"You ever think…that if you ever had kids, you'd do a better job than your father?"

He'd been halfway through a sip on his beer when she asked the questions, then lowered it at the question. Truth be told, no he didn't, but he wasn't sure that was do the way he was raised, he thought that sometimes there was something wrong with him at his core.

But he was more curious about why Yang would ask the question. He supposed it may be the sense of mortality potential death brought among people. What they'd done, what they could have done and what may have been.

"No." He finally said, "I'm not exactly…the nurturing type."

"What about your brother?"

Again, he found himself feeling this was leading up to something. He looked at the drink he'd given her and she hadn't touched it.

"Terrible." He said, "Worse than me."

Her eye's widened and her color paled a little. "Why?" Yang's voice cracked a little and Loki thought these were far more telling than Yang intended.

"I'm joking." He said, taking a sip to side his smile. "For all his faults, my brother is a surprisingly caring and nurturing individual, I'm sure you've seen him trying to help…unfortunate souls in the past."

The look on Yang face told him that yes, she had indeed seen this trait, and she was calming down.

"Okay…" she sighed, letting out a breath she probably didn't know she was having.

"You haven't touched your drink." He said.

Yang reaction was subtle, but her eye's widened slightly "I'm not thirsty."

They sat there in silence for a few moments before Loki spoke again "How long have you known?"

"Known what?"

"Okay…how long have you suspected?"

"What?" Yang said, doing a fair job at hiding her nerves, but he was far to experience to not notice the slight changes in her body language.

He wasn't certain, but he behavior was making him more convinced he'd reached the right conclusion.

"I now understand why you came to me. I don't socialize with the rest of your friends much, and anything out of my mouth will be meet by instant skepticism. Even with being the god of lies, I didn't really make myself out to be honest in our first meeting. Your sister, while your most trusted confidant, is innocent, excitable and naive enough to let it out by accident. Blake, as your partner, would be the next best choice, but you haven't completely forgiven her for leaving all of you, not yet, and poor Weiss is so overloaded now you won't place anymore strain on her."

"What-"Yang began, but he cut her off.

"And you obviously couldn't tell my brother, at least with the questions you have and get an objective answer." He sipped his beer and looked at her. He could tell he'd stunned her, but he'd intentionally not voiced his own thoughts on what he thought she was talking about, just in case he was wrong.

Yang was silent for a while but spoke after a while "I don't even know for sure, it's just…if I'm right, I have questions."

That more or less confirmed it in his eyes, but he still wanted to hear her say it. "Thor…no one can tell how someone will act when presented with a situation, but I think he will take it well enough…if you tell him." He paused for a moment as he thought of something "You're sure it's my brother, it couldn't be someone else?"

"He's the only person." She said "At least…the only one who could…have done it." She said.

Loki noticed her face flush ever so slightly at the last comment, and thought there might be another reason why she didn't confide in her partner. But that wasn't relevant in the situation at hand. "You aren't sure?"

"I haven't been to a doctor or taken a test or anything."

"Say no more." He said. She didn't know for certain , as it stood it was just a scare, although it could be more. But it was enough to get her mind moving in that manner, especially with the upcoming operation. "But if I were you, I'd find out sooner rather than later."

Yang just nodded and stood up "Thanks for listening."

He waved his hand in a dismissive manner "It's of little concern to me, I'll keep your silence, if for no other reason I'm tired and don't care for the drama it would result in." To his surprise Yang smiled at him. "What?"

"I was just thinking." She started "Thor might be right about you, that at the end of the day, for all your issues, you do have a heart."

"Watch it." He said as he finished his beer and picked up the one he'd offered her "Poke me too much, and I may change my mind."

"Whatever!" She laughed as she left "You won't." she said. "Or if you do, you'll at least keep it 'low-key'!" she smiled as she said the final line and left the room.

Sucking his teeth, he thought of telling everyone just to show he wasn't so predictable, but he knew at the end of the day he wouldn't.

Looking at his shirt, he saw the puss seeping through. He needed to dress the blight now, Yang had only missed it because she was caught up in her own issues to really notice.

But his thoughts wandered back to Yang and the conversation they'd had, and the idea he might be an uncle.

"Jaune." Ruby asked.

"Yeah?"

"You ever think about kids?"

Jaune felt his blood run cold at the question, not sure how to answer, but decided on "What do you mean?"

"Yang…been talking about them recently." She said, "I think she'd wondering what it might be like to be a mother, given we might not be around in a few days, and wondering what it might be like to have them."

Jaune felt himself calm down a bit, but the morbid thoughts unnerved him. "I guess, I mean, yeah I've thought about having kids…one day, but it's a vague and off in the future sort of thing."

Ruby didn't seem to really appreciate what he said, in her own world "I want kids." She sort of mumbled. Jaune felt his face flush but caught his face and followed up with "Not now, but…someday."

"So, we have to make sure we survive this mission." Jaune said.

Ruby giggled "Exactly, so make sure you don't die." She hugged him and snuggled into his chest.

Jaune didn't know if she was implying anything or not, but the idea still made his mind race. Ruby was remarkably innocent in many ways, and he didn't know if she was implicating him in her future or not.

It didn't matter, because now he was thinking of children, and the future. This line of the thought made his blood chill, because now the future was not so certain to him.

When he was younger, the future seemed limitless and unending. Now it seemed it might have extended less than a month. It was scary, but at the same time…exciting. The uncertainty, the risk, it got his heart pumping.

He didn't know what that meant about him, but it was better to be excited than scared he thought.

"Ruby…if we win this, then what?" He said trying to get the conversation in another direction.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, if Loki is right about that thing being the source of the Grimm, and it's killed along with Salem, the Grimm will be gone, and Hunter's and Huntresses will be…in far less demand."

"You mean …we won't be needed?"

"Not that exactly…but in far less demand, what would you do if you couldn't make a living off being a huntress?"

"I'd open a bakery." She said not missing a beat "My mom had the best recipes."

Jaune found he envied Ruby for her plans, the idea she knew where she wanted to go if this didn't work out. He didn't, this was all he ever wanted, and if he had to quiet it, he didn't know what he'd do. But he'd have to make his way, one way or another.

"Jaune?" Ruby broke his thoughts with the question.

"Yeah?"

"We… might not live much longer…"

"Yeah?"

"I…" Her face was flushing at whatever she was thinking.

"Ruby." He began "If you're thinking what I think you're thinking…Yang would kill me, she nearly did once and nothing even happened then."

"She doesn't have to know." Ruby said, quickly and somewhat excitedly. "We might be dead soon, so why not?"

As much as he loathed to agree with her, he saw her point. But at the same time, he wasn't exactly sure he saw their relationship in the same way she did. He did love her, but at the same time, he didn't know if it was fair to her. He still had his own hang up and wasn't sure it was fair to Ruby.

He'd voiced these thought to her before, but she insisted she didn't care, that she'd liked him from the day they had meet. She had no way of knowing that made him feel worse, that he was feeling like he just ignored any girl who liked him.

"Ruby…it's just not…"

"Just once?" She said, but phrased it as a question. "I don't want to die with doing it at least once."

Jaune was conflicted, but he was in the same boat as her and he had similar feelings.

"Ruby…" he said before he gave his answer.

Cinder sat in her cell, wondering if she'd made the correct choice when she spoke to Loki. Of course, she knew she didn't really have much of a choice, it was either talk and hope it brought her some good faith with her captors, or keep quiet and wait for Salem to send someone to kill her. She was of no use to Salem now, she couldn't get her the relic and her ability to be a fighting asset was now not much greater than an average huntress.

Mercury and Emerald were caught, probably being interrogated as well. She doubted they'd get anything more out of them than they did her, but they would be looking for any difference in the information given, looking for lies or misinformation that may have been feed to them.

"You're looking better." A familiar voice said from behind her.

"I've told you everything Loki, what do you want know?"

"I have a question about when you stole half of the Maiden's power."

"Why? You clearly have the ability do the same."

"I'm more interested in the side effects of what happened when you first stole them." He said, "Did you experience anything…unusual?"

Cinder turned to look at him, or rather his hologram. It looked so real, but she'd learned that they were no more physical than the air in the room. "I felt…like I was hungry, but other than that…no. Why do you ask?"

He rolled up his sleeve and she was his forearm was bandaged. He undid the wrappings, and as he did it, she thought it was odd an illusion would have to do so. But these thoughts were driven from her mind at the sight of his injury. The skin looked black and burned, cracking like drying mud on a hot day, and a yellow pus fill the cracks. She imagined it didn't smell to good either.

"I've been having these…blight spots appear somewhere on my body every time I push the limits of the magic I've taken, you never experienced anything like this?"

"No." She said coolly "Granted, my situation was different, but it's…similar enough."

"Any ideas on why?"

"No, unless…" she looked at him "It's that you're a man, and this power was only ever meant for young women."

"That would be rather unfortunate, I stole only the magic with the intent of circumnavigating that weakness."

"You could give it back." Her voice was in no way serious, she knew he'd never do it, and look on his face told her he knew she was aware of this.

"Well, that's all I have to ask you." He rolled his sleeve back down and said "Goodbye."

He faded from existence and now she had something to ponder. Was his reaction from separating the power from the ability? Or was it that he wasn't supposed to have it because he was a man. When she stole the power, she had both the "toy and the batteries" as Loki had put it, but only half. Loki now had the batteries and nothing else. Was it possible that was causing the energy to react unstably?

It at least gave her something new to think about here in her cell.

Loki rewrapped his arm and decided not to use the magic for the rest of the day, and see if Aura could heal his wounds. If they didn't look noticeably better in the morning, he'd have to start thinking of other solutions.

His mind wondered back to Yang and his brother. Nothing was certain at this point, but it seemed to solidify his and Thor's situation in this world. They were mortal and like the mortals. His own body wasn't tolerating strain of magic like it used to and he only to look at Thor once to see he wasn't his old self, in terms of physicality. They were vulnerable, fragile…one of them.

He'd held disdain for them for so long and now he seemed to be among them permanently. He didn't remember why he was sent here, and neither did Thor. His brother was certain it was a test, Loki was thinking it was more of a sentence, but neither could be sure. The only links they had to home were the Nordic tomes, Mjolnir and each other. Strangers in a strange land, he'd never admit it, but the few links to home comforted him.

Thor had set up much more easily than he had, in part no doubt due to his own fondness for mortals and his time among them. But Loki hadn't expected to grow as fond of these people and their world as he had.

But Thor was on the verge of starting a family her, a flesh and blood one. Where did that leave him? Was he falling behind him, and would his brother's surprising tolerance evaporate once he had someone else he could connect with on the same level?

It was foolish of course, any child he sired wouldn't know anything of Asgard other than what it was told. But it made him feel…empty that Thor had other connections and he didn't, Weiss was his closest friend her and that was more of a mutual feeling of being mistreated and misused.

They had "dated" shorty, but that was a lie he'd fostered for his own selfish ends. But he did like her, because despite her problems she still the drive to achieve her dream. Frankly he respected the fact that she hadn't let her problems break her and make her into…well someone like him. A creature of spite and malice. He'd know his actions were often jealous and petty for a long time, but he didn't know how to be anything else frankly. But here, he thought…he might be able to, if for no other reason than he didn't have the options he once did.

He thought of the conversation he'd had with Weiss's father. The man had a…sinister quality to him. Not the overwhelming dread of some he'd meet, but a more…low quality to it, more like a Crime lord than the owner of the world's most successful corporation. Granted in his experience the two often weren't much different. But he just seemed mean, like he'd been harassed for too long and eventually turned sour from it.

He also didn't get right to the point either when they spoke. He danced around the issue, trying to get him to reveal something. He was decently subtle, but Loki was far to experience in these fields to fall for it. Eventually, he asked if he planned on taking the company from him.

That had managed to surprise him, because he hadn't even considered it, not that it was outside of what he may have tried, but the man having it as a thought was bizarre. At least until he explained his own inheritance of the company. He'd married Weiss's mother, taken the family name and his father in law passed the company onto him as his "son". Granted he'd been a high-level employee prior to this, but he'd married into the company's ownership.

He'd thought he was courting Weiss, and by saving him he'd endear himself to both of them, and gain control of the company the same way he did.

Loki had told him he wasn't interested in his daughter, and Jacques had replied with the comment that such a thing was wise, because Weiss was far too good for him.

That irritated him a bit, given he'd save the man's life and that he didn't even know him, in this life or his previous. It was just a general sense of superiority the man had. But despite that, he'd been told he's be properly compensated for his service and then dismissed.

As he thought of this, the idea of dating Weiss just to aggravate her father crossed his mind. She may even like the idea, but he liked her too much to have a farce of a relationship just to aggravate her father, a man who really didn't mean anything to him in the end.

But, at least Weiss had reconciled…somewhat…with her father, and he seemed to reinstate her as his heir. Loki wasn't sure if this was out of gratitude, or the scare of the idea of what more or less happened while he was sick, his son was seen as too weak and it had resulted in the family losing control of the company. Weiss, despite her young age, had shown grit and toughness that instilled more confidence in her than her younger brother.

Loki suddenly found himself mentally and emotionally drained. He had things to think about, and he'd pushed his body further than he probably should have given his injuries.

He needed to get some rest, and hopefully he'd heal up a bit overnight.

Weiss felt oddly lonely in her room. Yes, she was alone in the room, but the feeling went deeper than that. Like she was grieving some sort of loss. She knew of course it had to do with her sister, but it didn't really help.

She understood her reasoning, but still hurt. She didn't want to dwell on it, they had talked and that was that, but it would still be some time before they could be around each other and the air returned to normal.

Instead she decided to wonder what her father had wanted talk to Loki about. He didn't normally take time to concern himself with "lesser" people. But Loki had saved his life so she understood her father's curiosity. He probably wanted to know more about his power.

There was also the possibility he was trying to pump him for information, or even bribe him to watch her. But Loki wouldn't do that, he… he would what?

When she thought about it, she didn't really, truly know him that well. And his history made it less likely that she would, if he was such a gifted deceiver. And she had been on the receiving end of it, yet here she was implicitly trusting him not to betray her to her father.

Why? She didn't consider herself an overly trusting person, and Loki had burned her once already. Why was she so certain he wouldn't betray her?

As she thought on it, and her feelings towards the trickster. She knew they connected on a level of disappointing parents, and being outshone by older siblings. But they liked the same sort of things, finer things than their other friends. Granted that was due in part to their upper-class upbringing.

But it was more than that, it was…something deeper, and she didn't like it. She didn't like that she trusted a known liar, trickster and thief. But she did, and she wasn't sure why.

As much as she tried to analyze it with cold logic, she could satisfactorily answer her own question.

"Loki." She muttered "what is this hold you have on me?" and started pacing her room.

Of course, Thor had told them he was famous for duping people, repeatedly, so it may just be something he was good at, gaining people's trust and getting them to trust him.

Then there was the fact that within their circle, they both were the only ones who weren't in a significant relationship, so maybe they just gravitated to each other out of loneliness? While she spent time with her friends, they also made time for their significant others.

Her mind wondered to Ruby and Jaune and her stomach knotted. Her partner and the boy who pursued her relentlessly at school were together. Although their relationship wasn't as…mature as the others, they were almost sickeningly lovey sometimes, at least by her standards.

At least when Loki was around, she knew he wasn't to get call to go out with someone, significant other or even a friend, which made her a bit sad, that he really didn't connect with the others like his brother had. She thought that other than Thor, she was the only friend he had.

But as she thought about him more, the more she felt…and odd mixture of emotions. She trusted him, but felt like she shouldn't. She felt pity for his isolation, but knew by his own admission it was his own fault. But as she thought, she realized what one of the feelings was, and it explained her situation pretty well.

Attraction. She was drawn to him on an emotional and physical level. They connected in many ways, but she found him physically attractive as well. Not in the same way as Thor looked…or had, but in a more elegant and sophisticated way. That had been why she asked him out in the first place.

But was it just mild attraction or infatuation? She examined her own feelings as objectively as she could and realized it was more than that. She liked him in a way she hadn't liked someone since…. well that wasn't important.

But she didn't want to like him like that, if she did, he would hurt her, somehow some way.

But this desire to expel the feelings did nothing to do so. She needed to talk to someone about this, someone who had more experience in this field than her, and there was only one person she knew that fit the bill and was available was also someone she was still very mad at.

"Well." She muttered to herself "At least this might help fix our relationship."

* * *

 **AN: Okay, there it is, tell me what you think.**


	21. Chapter 21

**AN: Okay, so here's the deal. I've decided on a short of mid way points between the two options I gave last update. I will be giving the chapters frequently, but not all in a single day. I will update every other day until I'm the story is finished.**

 **Honestly this should of come weeks ago, I've just been sitting on these chapters, in part of hoping I'd get my beta back, but that didn't happen and I've waited long enough**

 **So here it is.**

* * *

Tomorrow was the day, the end of it all, one way or another. Either the enemy would be crippled or they would. Winter had a better understanding of the troops and assets Ironwood had rallied, and if this failed, at least in a spectacular manner, not only would Atlas lose a significant portion of its military strength, but the recruits from the various kingdoms would be gone as well, and if anyone was going to die, it would be them.

Ironwood planned for the first wave to be predominately made of for foreign huntsman and automated troops, to reduce casualties to the Atlas army. It was… morally dubious, but he was putting Atlas first, even if his overall goal was to protect the world, he also knew that taking this his personal reasonability was putting most of the burden on Atlas, and he didn't want to win the battle only to weaken his nations standing in the world.

But her mind was on other things as well, she hadn't spoken with her sister in days, which never happened when they were this close to each other. They'd…reconciled a bit, but Weiss was still very upset with her, and she didn't want to leave on this mission without them being in a batter place.

As she thought of this her scroll hummed, and it was a text from Weiss. She didn't believe in things like fate, but this made her feel almost like it was. But she'd have given the thought more credit if thoughts of her sister hadn't dominated her mind for the past few days.

She read the text, and it only has three words "Can we talk?"

She types a quick response, "Yes, meet me in my room."

She put her scroll down and stood up and stretched her arms and back. Cutting it close, but better late than never, and she at least took some solace in the face she'd gotten her sister one of the safer details on the mission.

She looked at her scroll again, and no response from Weiss, so she assumed she was coming now. If she wasn't here in a few minutes, she'd give her a call. Had this been a year ago, she'd have called her immediately after the message and given her a time and place to meet her, and she'd have shown up precisely on time. Now she didn't think so. Not was Weiss upset with her, but she'd grown more independent in her time away from home. That much had been becoming clear when she had visited her at Beacon, and then when she'd escaped from home.

The knocking at her door, stopped her thoughts and she called "It's unlocked." She heard the door opened, and the clacking of shoes on her floor. Weiss came into the living room, and there was a noticeable tension in the air, but she was used to such tension. "Please sit down."

Weiss sat in one of her chairs, put her hands in her lap, and looked at the floor.

The silence lasted only a few moments before Winter broke the silence "What did you want to talk about Weiss?"

Weiss shifted a bit in her chair before answering. "Boys…I guess."

That was…a way more mundane and every day topic than she had expected, but she was a little happy to get to cover this topic with her sister, granted it was a few years after when she would have expected it but still. "Why? Is there a boy you like?" Winter hadn't expected such a silly topic to make her feel so good, it just seemed to make her feel…normal.

"Ummm…that's the thing I don't know."

Winter felt an odd sensation in her stomach at this response, and started to wonder if Weiss meant something else. Did she really not know if she liked him? Or was is possible that she did know, and thought it not appropriate to feel this way for him, for whatever reason.

"Would you like something to drink?" Winter asked, standing and moving to the kitchen.

"Wine, Red if you have it."

That was another little surprise, Weiss wasn't normally a drinker, in fact she was a bit of a teetotaler, and she thought their mother might have something to do with that. But now…it didn't seem so important, when she couldn't clearly see a future past the next few days.

She did have some wine, and got the best red she had, opened it and poured it into two glasses.

She went back to the living room and place Weiss's glass on the coffee table along with the bottle while she carried her own glass back to her seat.

"So." Winter said, "what do you mean 'you don't know'? "

"Exactly what I said, I don't know, I mean, I like him, but I'm not sure if I…like him in the way I think I might." She puttered off at the last line "Well, that's not exactly true, I'm pretty sure I know how I feel, but I think…I don't want to feel this way."

"Well." Winter started, thinking this may be more complicated that she had thought "So I just want to be clear, is the issue you're not sure if you like him...or that you like him and think it's not a good idea."

"The second." Weiss said as she sipped her wine. "I think…well to be frank I know there's an attraction there, but I don't think…logically… that I should even give the thought any concern."

"Why is that?"

"He's…well, he's not always been what I would call an upstanding citizen, and he's deceived me before."

"But you still have this attraction." Winter said, it wasn't a question but a statement. Many young women have a "bad boy" faze, but Weiss's issue seemed more self-aware than that, she was actively moving against the idea of the attraction. "Can you tell me his name?"

Wiess took another, longer sip of her wine, "I'd rather not, at least not right now."

"Well can you at least tell me if I know him?"

Weiss considered this for a moment then said, "You do."

That at least narrowed it down, Wiess had only been in contact with five boys for some time, unless of course she wasn't really talking about a boy, but that still narrowed down the options. "Well what do you like about…him?"

If Weiss had noticed the brief hesitation she didn't show it, instead she answered "Well, we have things in common, like…family issues. We have similar…tastes, or expectations at least of what to expect in certain situations."

Winter sighed, Weiss wasn't telling her anything useful, but rather what they had in common. "Weiss, how do you feel around him, what sensations would you described that as."

Weiss gave a thoughtful look. "I guess, I just feel comfortable around him. Like…he's had similar expectations of him in his life, and understands my issues in ways my other friends can't." She sipped her wine again " We get each other, and sometimes…it's just nice to sit with him, not even talking, just knowing someone understands."

"Okay." Winter said "Now tell me, why you think it's a bad idea to pursue him, unless he's already dating one of your friends, in which case I'd say drop it for now, it's not worth losing a friend over."

"Not, that's not it. It's just…he's kind of got a reputation for being…deceptive. And I'm not just talking about rumors, I've seen it firsthand."

"So you don't trust him."

"That's… not exactly right, I means I trust him…in certain things, but in other things I'm not sure I could."

"Okay." Winter sipped her own wine "Let me ask you this, do you think he'd ever deceive you in a way that would hurt you, at least intentionally."

"No…I mean, I don't think so, but still."

"Weiss, I want to help you, and protect you from any pain, I think you know that." She said setting her glass down "But I've seen how well that works. You need to…make this decision for yourself, I'll be here to give you advice, and help you if I can, but…I can't direct your life."

Weiss looked at her for a moment, then fished off her wine in a very non-lady like manner. "I guess our family has the tendency to have changes of heart when it's the least convenient, first father lets me go, now you aren't going to tell me what to do."

"No, I'm not." Winter said "It what I should have done in the first place talked to you, then let you make your own decision." He took a deep breath "If you don't think he can be honest with you, or if you really think he'll hurt you, I'd sat let him go, but you need to make these choice for yourself."

"Winter." Weiss said "I'm sorry for being distant these past few days, but I was upset with you."

"You had every right to be, I was upset with myself honestly, from the moment I did it. It was a mistake, but I stand by the sentiment, I'd do anything to keep you safe, but now…I see that if I keep acting that way, I'll be like father."

"You'll never be like him." Weiss said and hugged her sister. "Thank for the talk, I think I'll go talk to him now."

"Alright." Winter felt her stomach turn at this point, because she wasn't sure if her sister would follow her advice or not, but she had to let her make this decision on her own.

They broke the embrace and Weiss thanked her again and left, and she was left to ponder.

She was certain who Weiss was talking about, Loki. He was the only one of her friends who hadn't paired off, and she'd made reference to him being one of her friends and not in a relationship. She didn't know him that well, thought he had brought a powerless Cinder to them and tipped them off to the attempted left of the relic. He had a…slippery quality to him, like he played his cards close to his chest, and acted like he knew more than everyone in the room.

He wasn't bad looking, but he just seemed…off. But Weiss knew him better than her, so maybe she knew better here.

She hoped she did.

Loki gasped as he got out of the shower, hissing with pain. Looking at the blight marks, he couldn't help but be concerned. The yellow pus was now tinged with red, and they hurt more than previously. This power was eating breaking his body a part. His use of the higher magic abilities had almost certainly quickened the process. He needed to get it out of him, but he wasn't sure how to do so without giving it back to Cinder. The only thing he'd thought of was transferring it into a object, like the relics, but that ran its own risk. He doubted a mundane item would contain it for long, and even then, if he could use it properly.

But he need it gone, if this persisted at this rate for a few more days, he wouldn't be able to hide it.

He'd get dressed and head down the bases forge, which they'd all be given free access to, along with any other huntsmen recruited for the mission. He had a bit more credit there than most, thanks to how he'd ingratiated himself to Ironwood, so he might be able to make something that would hold up for a few days at least, after that, it wouldn't matter.

But he needed to get these things dressed and covered. They were draining pretty thoroughly now, and if he didn't, it would become far to obvious something was wrong. He'd tried to heal them once, and that was when the situation got much worse.

He need to put some ointment on them first. He reached for the medicine cabinet, and as he did, a pain shoot up and down his arm, like his arm was breaking apart.

Gasping from the pain, he yanked his arm back, and sipped on the still wet floor.

He howled in pain, unable to hold it in any more.

"Loki?!" A voice called into the bathroom.

Before he could respond, the door to the bathroom openend and Weiss came in to see him in all his shame.

"Weiss!" He hissed in pain and angry "What are you doing?"

"I heard the bang and you yelling…" she trailed off looking at him, and the large, ugly, cracked and weeping marks over his body. "My god…what happened?"

No use in it now, he might as well get her help. "I'll tell you, but you need to help me get these dressed." He gestured to the medicine cabinet "Get the ointment and bandages."

She didn't say anything else as she did was he told her to do. She was quick and efficient, and his open sores now only throbbed and ached. She was quick to started applying the salve and bandages the wounds, and he couldn't help but think it was in part so she wouldn't have to look at them.

It took the better part of fifteen minutes, where the only sounds where his heavy breathing and her occasional gasp, whenever the sores ejected a nice stream of pus.

When all was said and done, the fact he was naked as the day he was born was being ignored by her, said wonders about her shock.

"Loki…what happened?"

"Hand me that robe." He gestured to a green robe on the back of the door "I'll explain in the living room." She grabbed the robe, helped him put it on, and got him on his feet. "I can walk, don't worry." He said and she let him go, but the way she hovered over him made him think she was certain he'd keel over any moment.

But he made it into the living room, granted it was at a shuffle, and sat down grunting out in pain.

"Loki…what- "

"Happened." He finished "Well, truth be told, I don't know." He looked at her for a moment "I believe this is the result of the power I…let's just say it, stole. Without the maiden's power, it's unstable and it's…not reacting well to me. When I did some the stronger magic I can use, it got worse."

"Like with my father."

Loki shrugged "Yes, well that and the teleportation I did to get there." He said "I was going to try and transfer it to something else today, an object, like the relics. I just need to find something strong enough to handle it for the next few days."

"Okay." Weiss said as she looked around the room "What were you going to use?"

Loki shook his head "I'm going to have to make something."

"Okay…let's get you dressed, then we'll head to the forge."

"We?"

"You're going to need help, your not at your best, and besides, I'm not sure you've ever used a huntsman's forge."

"Well, no, but I've yet to meet a forge or machine I couldn't exploit."

"Still, you're going to need help if you want this done quickly."

He knew she was right, he didn't want to waste time hunting down materials or equipment, he didn't have the luxury of time. "Alright, let me get dressed, then we'll head down." With that he stood up and limped to his room, closing the door.

The fall had burst a few things on his skin, as he noticed that some of the bandages were already starting to bleed through. It was also taking longer than he would take normally, because he was moving so gingerly. But he was dressed soon enough, but he had forgone his normal taste in clothes for looser fitting more comfortable clothing. Part out of a desire to avoid pressuring the sores, and because he's be doing some dirty work.

He left his bed room and Weiss was standing there ready to go, and in his clearer mind set he now had a question. "Why were you here anyway."

Her body language might as well of been a billboard for how uncomfortable she was. "It's not important, let's just get to the forge."

In normal circumstances, his curiosity would cause him to push the question, but he was to intent on his plan.

"Alright, let's go." He said and with the headed towards the door. He was painfully aware of the awkward movement was, but there was no helping it, if he moved to quickly, he risked breaking open his injuries.

"Do you need any help?"

"No, I just need to take it slow." He said as they walked into the hall. He looked at her, "So, can you tell me what materials I can expect to find in the forge, and what types of dust."

"Any type of metal you could want, even that Silver Steel, granted that one isn't available to general use, you need to talk to the Quartermaster for that."

"I'm not concerned with the quartermaster, I have enough credit with the General to get what I want, what about the dust?"

"Mostly weapon and fuel grades."

"What about Adamantine?"

"Probably, but that's usually used for armor piercing rounds."

"It may be useful in the construction of the…housing unit."

The two went on in silence for the next few minutes, until they reached the lift to the forge. As the door opened, they were meet with a surprise.

"Blake?" Weiss said, doing her best to hide her surprise. "What were you doing in the Forge?"

Blake, for her credit didn't seem surprised to see them "I was just making some new gear for the mission, I needed something to hit harder." He patted what looked like a purse on her side. "What are you doing here?"

"I was just showing Loki to the forge, he needs equipment for the mission."

"Really? I was under the impression you weren't going."

"Well, I've changed my mind." Loki said, but the look Blake gave him, told him she knew something was not normal here. He had a strong suspension she could smell the sores. He'd know Faunus had heightened sense and that was why he'd taken a shower right before he was planning to leave, to help mask it. But they were open and weeping, and he was certain she was picking up on that. "Now if you don't mind, we have to pick up the pace, we don't have long." With that he walked onto the lift and Weiss followed suit.

Blake spoke one more time before the door closed "We'll see you tonight right?"

"Of course." Weiss replied just before the door closed and cut off their view of Blake.

"What are you doing tonight?"

"Just…well with tomorrow, we all wanted one night all together."

"I see."

"You didn't know? Didn't Thor tell you?"

Loki shrugged "He may of, but I've been…distant from other's these past few days, with my…condition."

"Well, if this goes well, are you willing to come?"

"We'll see how I feel after this." And with that the door's opened and they walked into the forge. It wasn't really a forge as Loki had understood it growing up, more of a machine shop. But there were still aspects of it. "I'll need to work fast."

Weiss watched as Loki worked on his…she wasn't sure if it was a weapon, it looked more like a cane or rod.

He'd chosen to allow the silver steel along with the toughest metal Atlas had, which she had known Thor had done with his axe, and infused it with Adamantine dust.

But he was looking rough, sweeting and breathing hard. She'd been helping where she could, but there wasn't time for her to ask specifics on construction or dimensions. She helped with water and hold things when he needed them, or hoping him move materials when needed.

As he milled, forged and ground the tool, it started to come into what was looking like a finished object. Now it looked more like a walking stick than ever, with shaft terminating in a fairly heavy knob. But with one thing that clearly made this a weapon. A moderately curved blade was at the top, running parallel to the shaft, with it extending six inches above and below the handle.

"Weiss, I need you to get the gas furnace going and it up to maximum temperature." He said as he ground out a of the rod.

She didn't answer, but just listened and started the furnace. The was usually used to quench blades to harden them, and she wondered what Loki planned to do.

"Move." He said from behind her and she moved out of the way, and in inserted the…cane? Rod? It didn't matter really.

"So…what is that?"

Loki was drinking a gulp of water but responded when he was done "I based it on a weapon I had once, more less a cane with a slashing blade on it."

"It's…unique."

"It's more useful than it looks trust me."

"Are you going to quench it?"

"In a manner of speaking."

"You don't have any oil though; do you want me to get some?"

"No, this won't need anything other than what I can do."

"Loki…please tell me you aren't going to use magic." Concern in her voice

"I'm afraid I'll have to, it may hold the power on its own, or it might not, I want to make sure I'll only have to do this once."

"Please don't…." Weiss muttered, she didn't want to see him hurt himself.

"Well…I'm going to do it." And that, he used a pair of tongs to pull the now glowing rod out of the furnace, and before she could try to dissuade him, she felt the air around them move and he whispered something, and the rod stopped glowing instantly, and Weiss was a bit surprised to see it look polished and finished, despite it's over all simplistic design.

Loki however had dropped to a knee, clutching his chest, where she saw something seeping through his shirt. "Loki, you know for someone so smart, you can be incredibly stupid." She said ans she rushed over to help him back to his feet.

"No time for the lecture." He rasped "Is there a place I can do the transfer in a more secluded area?"

"We can go to one of the testing rooms, but Loki, can you even do the transfer."

"Yes." He near whispered "It shouldn't be nearly as draining as some other magic, given I'll be removing it from my body."

She believed him unconditionally, and that realization made her stop. "Loki…are you using your semblance on me?"

He didn't respond, and she took that as a yes. She felt like someone had punched her in the chest. This was the exact thing she'd talk to Winter about being afraid of him doing.

"It doesn't matter, I need to do this now, if it stays in me much longer, it's going to kill me." He gasped, and she believed him this time on her own accord.

"Fine, let's get this over with." She said as she helped him limp to one of the testing rooms where Hunters could put new weapons and gear through their paces.

It wasn't a big room, just large enough to test gear to make sure it functions on a basic level. But Loki deemed it large enough and placed his cane in the middle of the floor and started placing familiar object around them. They looked like the runes he'd used to when he cured her father, but these looked…like silver rather than bone.

"Are those different than the ones you used for my father?"

"Yes, those were bone, these are silver." He said, and she mentally noted she guessed correctly.

"Why use these? Are the other broken?"

"No, but since I'm transferring the power into and object rather than a person, silver is more likely to work." Weiss wasn't even going to ask why it made a difference, but trusted Loki to know how and why it did. Once he placed the last rune and stepped back. "Now there is a decent chance this could incapacitate me or even kill me, so…" He said raising his hands "If this kills me…I don't know tell Thor…well I'm sure you'll think of something touching."

Before she could say anything, he activated the spell. The air seemed to get heavier and hotter as Loki muttered something under his breath. As he did so, something…gaseous and glowing flowed from his body.

"Loki…" she said and the air suddenly felt charged with energy as it transfer. His face was twisted in concentration, and sweat was running down his face. This didn't feel like what had happened with her father, this was…much more energetic, and she felt like there was a dangerous presence in the room.

This went on for a few minutes and Loki was starting to grunt, with the effort. This didn't seem right, she wasn't there when he took the power, but he'd seemed fine when they'd seen him afterwards, energetic even.

"Loki…is everything…alright?" He didn't say anything, as the power flowed out of him, and then spoke suddenly and so quietly she almost didn't hear him.

"Damn." Was all he said, and a powerful pulse radiated from Loki's cane.

It threw her against the wall and Loki was thoroughly lifted up and tossed high onto the wall, where he bounced off and landed on the floor, unmoving.

"Loki!" She cried and quickly jumped to her feet, despite the power of the pulse, her aura had kept her safe and unharmed, mostly. But Loki wasn't moving, and if the fall in his bathroom had opened the sores so badly, that had probably burst them all.

She got to him, and rolled him over. He groaned, which was a good sign, but she hiked his shirt up to examined his sores. One of the bandages was coming off, and she peeled it away, and what she saw came as a surprise.

It looked, well the best word was dry. It wasn't discharging the pus and blood the others had when he feel earlier.

Loki's eye's opened slightly and muttered "Did it work?"

"I don't know you tell me, you're the sorcerer." She said as she started to look at his other dressings. "But your sores aren't open, and it anything, they look…better."

Loki sat up and said "They feel better." He shook his head and looked at his hands. "It's gone, that's for sure, my natural Aura is healing me, but." He looked over to his cane "I need to check, and see if it's in there."

He stood up and walked over to it and held his hand over it for a moment the gripped it. At this angle, she could see his face. But he stood up clutching the cane, and the way he was holding it, it reminded her more of a short stabbing spear with the blade on the top.

"Catch!" He called and threw it towards Weiss. She caught it without fail and felt something surge through her arm. It almost seemed to vibrate in her hand, it in the dim light, it almost glowed. There was power in this thing.

"It worked then?"

"Indeed." He said as he walked to her and she handed it back to him. While it reminded her of a cane or walking stick in appearance, it felt far more like a weapon in hand than she had thought it would.

"Will you be able to use your magic like before with it?"

"Doubtful, this magic is supposed to be used through a living conduit, in a non-living container the power will probably me muted, but I can probably still do some tricks with it, or enhance other things with it, like dust." He held out the…spear she supposed, gripping it near the head and she saw a slot for a dust crystal, which she hadn't noticed before. "So." He said, looking and sounding much better "Why were you at my room?"

There it was, she knew he'd come back to that at some point, the fact he dropped so quickly earlier was because he had more important issues on his mind. But that little trick of his with his semblance had made her question the idea all together, as it confirmed in her mind the worst-case scenario.

"It was nothing." She finally said, "I just wanted to ask you about the gathering tonight." She knew she'd made a mistake the moment she said it.

"But I didn't even know about it, what could you have asked."

"Well, I didn't know you didn't know." She could tell he knew she wasn't completely honest. How did you trick a trickster? She then remembered something Loki had mentioned in one of their talks, about his skill in deception. The best deceptions were mostly truth, and the more truth you had, the better the trick "I was just going to ask if you wanted to go with me, so we wouldn't have to be the only two who showed up alone."

"Ah, I see." He nodded and she wasn't convinced he bought it, but he seemed less interested. "Well, I need another shower, and I'm sure you'd like to freshen up, and if the offer still stands, I would like to go to you."

That made her heart skip and beat and she felt gross that she was still infatuated with him, even though she'd decided in her mind to not try and pursue anything. "Well then, I'll see you tonight."

"Indeed." Was all he said, his smile back on his face, and the smile made her heart skip another beat.

In the shower for the second time that day, Loki felt better than he had I days. The 'blight' spots were no longer discharging the pus and the felt better, his Aura healing them quickly. He'd be better in the morning more likely than not.

As he got out of the shower, she noticed that some of the black pieces of the sores were flaking off, exposing red, but otherwise healthy skin beneath. That was a good sign.

His mind wondered back to the…spear he supposed, that he made. He really should test its abilities before actual combat, but it was unlikely that he'd be able to give it proper range of test in the time frame anyway. Besides, he'd handled far more unstable and dangerous weapons before.

But he thought of Weiss and her…explanation for coming to his room was…off. She wasn't telling him the whole truth, but she wasn't lying completely either.

He's uncover out the truth soon, she wasn't a very talented liar and she didn't really want to keep it a secret anyway. She was on the verge of telling him right then and there, she'd probably let it slip sooner or later, especially if there was alcohol at the gathering.

Ruby hadn't ever really been one for party's or large gatherings, in part because she wasn't super great at making new friends. But this was better, people she knew and liked and just enjoying the company.

But, despite this the air felt…tense. Like everyone was just going through the motions of what was expected in this situation. Well, that wasn't right, a few people seemed on edge. Jaune, she understood, he'd been a bit off ever sense their conversation. But something was bothering Yang, she wasn't cutting loss like she normally would have, and not drinking like she would normally. Everyone else seemed to be fine, even happy.

The only people missing were Weiss, and Loki. The Apartment Weiss had brought them to when they first got to Atlas was where they were having this get together, and she'd gotten a text from Weiss she'd just left with Loki, so that was ten minutes away by car, so they should be here soon.

That was something else that was odd. They seemed way…closer than they should be, especially given Weiss's closed off nature. Granted she was much more open now than when they first meet, but still, they spent a lot of time together. The fact he'd duped her when they first meet was another reason their friendship seemed so odd to her.

She'd be lying if she said she didn't feel a bit jealous. Weiss was her partner, and she thought that if she ever needed to talk to someone, it would be her.

But she really didn't want to muddle her thoughts with this. These were issues that would have to be dealt with after…what ever happened tomorrow. It was hard for her mind to truly wrap around the scale of what this all meant, it was the beginning of the end. If they won, then it was all over, the war, the Grimm, everything. Maybe not completely, but mostly.

She'd found herself wondering what they…all of them, would do afterwards. Would the world need huntsmen? It would, she was sure, but probably not in the demand they were now. But would else could she do? Despite what she told Jaune, she really didn't think she could do anything else, and she really didn't want to.

"Ruby! Come check this out!" Sun called braking her out of her thoughts. "Nora's trying to drink Thor under the table!"

"Coming!" She called back with cheer in her voice, she really wasn't interested in seeing Nora and Thor trying to out drink each other, but she wanted to be engaged with them and not off in her own little world.

"So, you are sure that you be arrested for being here this time?" Loki asked Weiss as they walked to the apartment.

"Yes, I cleared with my father, he's deeded this place to me, he says it to say thanks for helping cure him."

"Hmmm, so your relationship is improving then?"

"I'm not sure, he still seems, distant, distracted like he's not completely there."

"Well, it's something, how about your mother?"

"She's, not doing well. I tried to speak to her a few times, but…her condition has gotten worse, she's drinking more than ever."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Loki said. "Everyone has their demons, some are just more visible than others."

"You…don't have a spell or something to help her, do you?"

Loki looked at her and saw the look on her face, and his stomach churned at what he had to tell her. "Not in this form and not with this magic. Her condition is medical and mental, and not something I can just remove from her."

Weiss went silent as they came up to the door, and opened and Loki saw an all too familiar site of Thor in his cups. What was really more interesting was that Nora was matching his drink for drink. Nora hadn't ever struck him a big drinker, but he had known he ability to consume food was impressive.

They were both getting loud, but Thor caught site him and stopped drinking and called "Brother you made it! Come and see which of us will emerge from the drink victorious!"

That was the old Thor, the fun-loving drinker. It made him feel like he was closer to home.

"Yeah, there a betting pool to!" Sun called "I've got 10 on Nora."

"As much as I love Nora, Thor drinks beer like water, she doesn't have a chance." Yang added.

"How uncouth." Weiss muttered but Loki walked forward to the "event".

"20 on Thor." Loki said and threw the money down. Thor could out drink a fish if he wanted to, at least in his normal form. Here the odds were much more even, but his larger size and higher muscle mass would allow him to edge Nora out, despite the girls' ravenous appetite.

As the two continued, Loki hadn't expected this type of energy. It was for more cheerful than he would have expected, given what was to be undertaken the next day. He didn't know if it was the young age of most here, or if it was they had great confidence in the ability to win.

Loki milled around the event which eventually ended in Thor's victory, with Nora finally slumping over in her chair, and Ren carrying her to the bed room. To her credit, Thor was wobbling on his feet, and as far as Loki knew, she was actually a fairly light drinker in general.

The party proceeded for a few hours, with light conversations with food and drink, but Loki was more interested in the people. Yang wasn't drinking at all, and Jaune would get a thousand-yard stare when he didn't think anyone was watching, and Ruby was constantly looking at either Jaune or Weiss.

There were things going on under the surface, and for the first time in a long time, he found he wasn't all that curious. He knew what Yang was dealing with, or at least thought he did, he'd talk to her at some point tonight. Thor had no clue, because if he did, he'd be making sure everyone knew.

Weiss was drinking more than he'd ever seen her do, and he privately thought she might want to be careful if alcoholism ran in the family.

He watched Yang move to the balcony of the apartment and step outside. Now was his chance, and he followed her.

She was leaning on the railing, looking out over the dark city.

"So." He began "Do you know for sure yet?"

"More or less." She said without bothering to look at him.

He walked up next to her and leaned on the railing himself. "So, what's the word then?" He knew the answer, she wasn't drinking and knew one way or another, that left the answer all too clear.

"Looks like I was right." She said, "I don't know what I'm going to do about this."

"Well maybe you or my brother will be dead tomorrow and it won't matter." He said smirking.

"Your sense of human sucks, you know, that right?"

"Matter of opinion." He said, "But I personally you should keep it to yourself for now, there's nothing you can do about it right now or tomorrow, and the news isn't exactly the best thing to spring on someone before a large battle."

"Well you know, does it weigh on you at all?"

"I don't care, that's why you even bothered to come to me in the first place."

"That's not true." She muttered.

"Oh, so why did you come to me?"

"Not that part, the other one, that you don't care, that's total bullshit and you know it."

"Is it now?"

"You put that front up, but you don't hide it as well as you think you do. When one of us is upset or in danger, you put that stone face on, but when you think no one's watching, it drops like a ton of brinks. You ran to Weiss's aid as soon as she called you, you got all our sorry asses out of jail by taking out Cinder and telling Ironwood about the theft."

"How do you know it's just not more of my self-serving attitude?"

"Your eyes." She said finally looking at him "You show concern when were in trouble, and pain when the others are dismissive or mistrust of you."

Loki licked the inside of the lips, rolling his tong around for a moment before responding "You are…rather observant aren't you. That or I'm losing my touch."

"I've seen those eye's before, someone who wants to belong, but can't or won't"

"Whose eyes were those?"

"My Uncle Qrow, his semblance means he can't stay near his family. He wants to around us, but can't. You want to be around other's but…. well it's a bit of can't and won't."

"You're more perceptive than I gave you credit for." Loki said this, which was followed by a silence.

"I'm going back inside, it's cold." Yang finally said while she turned to leave "You'll keep quiet, right?"

"I may love mischief and chaos." Loki said without looking at her "But I do have a certain pragmatism to me, I'll let you be the one to let it be known."

Yang didn't say anything, she just went back in, and Loki looked out over the city. His mind wondered, which he found it doing more and more recently. He'd thought this world was temporary stop on his endless journey through time and space, a blip on his experience. But it was feeling more and more like the last stop.

Mortality had always been an abstract to him, even if Asgardians could die, he'd been banished from it. He didn't know if he died here in mortal form is the same rules would apply, and tomorrow he might.

"You alone out here?" A voice came from behind him.

"I was… Weiss." He said, not turning to look at her. Her voice sounded…off, not the usual crisp and concise tones, her words seemed more drawn out. He had seen her have a few drinks, of wine rather than beer.

She walked up next to him and put her hand on his back, rubbing it. He was certain she was at least tipsy now.

"I wanted to talk to you." She said.

"About what?"

"What I originally came to your room for, you know, the day you did the transfer."

"I see." Looks like he wouldn't have to actually pry for the information at all.

"Mmmmhhhmmm." She said, leaning on the railing, in a manner that told Loki she was using it to support herself. This was odd to see, Weiss almost always came off as prim and proper, or at least tried to. She was clearly drunk on some level, more than the tipsy he'd thought she was. "I've…sort of developed some feelings for you." She said, probably louder than she thought she was being.

"Ahhh." He said. "I suspected as much, you and your friends…don't hide feelings as well as you think you do."

"So…" She was leaning against him now. "You got an opinion on that?"

Loki looked over at her and saw the glass of wine in her hand. Her reached over and gently pulled it out of her hand and downed what was left "That maybe you should be cut off, you have to work in the morning."

"I'll be fine, Aura will heal any of the side effects of a hangover."

"Perhaps, but it's not a good habit." He set the glass down as he said this.

"Like it will matter, we'll all probably be dead tomorrow." She muttered "You also didn't answer my question."

"Yes, well you can do better than me." He said, not quite sure where these words were coming from.

"Better than a god?! I doubt it!" She started rubbing his back again.

"A fallen god." He corrected "And not truly one of the renown of my brother."

"Semantics." She added. "If Xiao Long can get one, then I should definitely be able to."

She was drunk, but her voice was fading, implying that she was falling asleep. "Come on, let's get you to the bed."

"Oh, you're so forward now." She said leaning on him, giggling.

"Yes." He said while he lead her in "But we must be quiet." She was fading quick, and while he had no idea how much she had actually drunk, he knew her tolerance wasn't all that high, her small size and infrequent drinking habits made sure of that.

His brother was making a buffoon of himself, and was currently in a push up contest with Sun. Thor was mocking him by adding claps to his routine while keeping his pace. The laughter and cheering was distracting enough, but he thought Yang had caught them out of the corner of her eyes.

He didn't bother to wait and see, and brought Weiss into the bedroom Nora was sleeping off her own drinking, and helped her into the bed with the other girl.

"I'm not interested in making this a three way…." Weiss muttered and faded into sleep just as he got her into bed. She was sound asleep as he pulled the blanket over her. Thinking of something, he pulled the covers up, and took her shoes off.

He heard a faint laugh, from her and looked up to see her smiling at this, but still clearly asleep. He looked at her, and his chest felt…weird. These mortals, well he was one of them, and he thought he was maybe starting to see Thor's attraction to them.

Weiss question was still in his mind, and he had to think on it. He wasn't exactly in touch with his emotions.

"You in here being a pervert?" A voice, Yang's voice came from behind.

"You think I'd do that?" He turned to look at her, and noticed she was smiling.

"I don't know, I've read some of those stories, about you, you've done some weird stuff."

"Not everything in those stories are true you know."

"Whatever you say." She said, "What are you doing here?"

"Weiss was…done for the night, I was…putting her to bed." He started to walk to the door.

"Aren't you just a bit sweetheart." She said still smiling.

"I'm going back to the base, I don't think I'll be missed."

"While I don't want to make you feel bad, I think you're right." She said "You're a real wallflower."

"If Thor's asks where I went- "

"I'll tell him, see you tomorrow."

With that he left, the last thing he saw was Sun finally collapsing in the contest, and Thor jumping up in victory, only to fall squarely on his back, the physical exertion and drinking putting him off his balance.

Weiss woke the next day feeling thirsty but otherwise fine. IT took her a moment to remember where she was and what had happened the night before, which she didn't fully recall, but she knew she'd drank more than she should have.

The other side of the bed was warm, like there had been a body there not long. But she was still mostly clothed except for her shoe's, which she didn't remember taking off, but that didn't mean much.

She heard some voices coming from the living room, and rubbing her head, she got up to get some water.

Ren and Nora were in the kitchen eating breakfast.

"Morning!" Nora said in a chipper voice that Weiss wasn't sure matched how she felt inside.

"Good morning." She said looking around "Just you two?"

"I volunteered to stay in case you two…needed anything, all the other's went back to the base."

Weiss nodded "How long until we have to report." She asked more to herself than anyone else as she pulled out her scroll to check the time.

"Three hours." Ren said before she could even look.

"Well, I'm going to take a shower." Weiss said "If I'm going to die, I want to die clean."

Bullhead – Mission Deployment

Thor looked over the data pad explain the plan while he sat in the bullhead. This bullhead, along with many, many others were on aircraft carriers carrying them close to the combat zone. The plan was…not exactly what he expected. The first wave of attacks was from the infantry or air force, but the navy. They had these torpedo's that were designed like drills. Theses silver-steel drills would penetrate the shell in thousands of places, drill in and detonating in the areas where it was believed Salem had her base set up.

The plan was fairly simple, flood them out. Force it to come to the surface of have all inside die. The problem was the pure logistics of this, the creature was so large the just a few "small" holes wouldn't do it. That was why thousands were needed.

Once it surfaced, assuming it did, then the troops would enter through the openings and attack the enemy directly.

He really thought that just laying into the creature with artillery and weapons like the torpedoes, but that might not even kill it, given its size.

Thor looked at the other's as they strapped into the Bullhead they had been assigned. His brother was carrying what looked like a short spear that reminded him of a weapon he'd used before. Most of the other's had their old equipment, more less even if it was slightly modified. Blake was the only one who seemed to bring anything extra.

They were all silent, some looking almost sick with apprehension. Thor felt none of that, he was far too old and used to this sort of thing to feel these things anymore.

None of them were actually green in battle, but the idea of what all this meant was probably weight heavily on their heads.

"Yang?" Thor heard Ruby call out to her sister, who was sitting next to him allowing him to hear the conversation. "You think Uncle Qrow and dad are okay?"

A normal question for her to ask as far as Thor was concerned. Of the large number of volunteers, their Uncle and father weren't among them. Granted he had no way of knowing this for sure, but if they'd been here, he was certain they'd have found them by now.

He heard similar conversations from the others, wondering what family members were up to, how they were doing and so on.

Thor turned to his brother "Are you alright brother?" He said, smiling.

"Of course." He said, not returning the smile "Just like the good old days."

"Would have thought you would want more than a pointed stick on this mission." He teased his brother's weapon choice.

"It's got some surprises, don't worry about that." He said.

The engines started to roar to life and take off. If they were mobilizing the air units, then the navy must either be in place or already attacking. He hadn't really paid attention to the time frame, he just knew where he was going and how he was supposed to "watch the exit" as it were.

They were airborne and moving out with a whole fleet of Bullheads, with the naval ships growing smaller as they flew away from them. The navy was going to move in for support, but most of the fighting was going to be the ground troops.

As they flew to the combat zone, what looked like a black shadow on the horizon came into view, where there shouldn't be one. This creature was truly massive by the standards of this world. But he didn't feel any particular trepidation in this fact.

Yang apparently did, as she silently grabbed his hand, squeezing it. Thinking of the time he'd been rendered blind and an invalid, and she'd made similar gestures to comfort him, he squeezed back.

The creature, as they flew over it, looked old. Its white shell has sea life growing on it, though not as much as he would of thought given how old it was. But seemed…remarkable passive for just having a plethora of holed drilled into it.

It didn't seem to be moving now that it was on the surface. He didn't know much about the creature, but maybe it was really much more than an oversized Grimm.

"Something is wrong." Loki said as the Bullhead landed alongside several others, with Hunters, Huntress, standard military droids and what looked like civilian volunteers rushed into the opening in the shell. IT was bigger than what Thor would of thought, he thought the Bullhead may have been able to fly down if it cared to try.

"What wrong?" Thor asked as the last of group disappeared into the tunnel.

"This seems, to easy."

"Well brother." Thor waved his hand at the group, which comprised on of their friends "We aren't being given the most glamorous job, we get the watch the exit."

"Still." Loki muttered and walked to the edge of cliff, which was really the edge of the Grimm's shell, and looked out into the ocean as the massive naval fleet approached. "Those big guns will be here soon."

The radio crackled and they heard the leader of their team expedition call "We appear to be in the Main chamber, keep out exit clear."

"Roger that." Weiss responded.

They waited. And waited. And waited more.

"Is the silence good or bad?" Ruby eventually asked.

"Given we haven't heard any panic screams or calls for help or extraction, I'd say it's good." Weiss said to her partner.

Thor looked out to the sea, and wondered if Loki had been right, this was to easy. The Navy was now right up on the Grimm, and the ground forces had maintained foot holds.

Then he heard an all to family cry. The howling horn like call of the Wendo. Then came the shrill cries of the Shriekers mixed in.

He picked up his axe and moved to the opening. The other's all moved to do the same, then he heard his brother speak. "It's closing up." He said point at the hole in the shell.

Thor looked and saw he was right. "Anything you can do to stop it."

"If Weiss will help me." He said walking up to it, raising his spear.

"What do you need?"

"Ice." He said, "We can create a tunnel of ice to keep it open."

"What about the other teams?" She asked his brother.

"Nothing we can do to help them, they'll have to let their own guards come up with something else, are you ready?"

Weiss nodded, and together, with his magic and her glyphs a wall of Ice coated the tunnel.

As they finished however, the creature shifted suddenly and they all had to struggle to keep their footing.

Thor looked to see the Grimm had raised one of its claws out of the water, and the Navy had responded by shelling it, with surprising effectiveness given the size of the rounds, he could only assume they were also silver-steel based weapons.

But that soon became clear it didn't matter, as the wounds caused it not to bleed blood, but swarms of flying Grimm.

Soon, shadows overhead started to block out the sun and Looking up, there were countless Grimm flying over heard, towards the fleet.

Then the ground next to them exploded with a shell from one of the ships. They were firing either at the Grim in the air, or the one they were all on. He looked down at the sea, and saw under the surface w tide of black with red, yellow and white shining through.

He turned to the Bullhead and saw one of the flying, a giant Nevermore slam into it and carry it off the edge.

He looked back to the fleet and saw several of the ship in flames.

"Everyone!" He called "Inside." And lead the rush into the ice cave, several of them having the same idea.

"Hello!" A voice called over the radio. "We're being overrun! More than Grimm, something-" the voice was cut off instantly.

After they had been running for ten minutes they started to slow down to a walk and eventually stopped to regroup.. Thor looked at the walls of Ice, and turned to his brother. "Loki, how long will this Ice last?"

Loki just shrugged "I honestly can't say, if left along, I'd say a day, but I get the feeling it won't be left alone, look." He pointed to a crack forming in the ice.

"So." Weiss said "Do we continue on or go back."

"Go back to what!" Jaune almost shouted "There's no way out back there, the Bullheads gone, the fleets destroyed, if their anyone left, they're heading back to Atlas."

"That make it simple then." Thor said and made to continue on.

"But if we go that way…" Ruby said.

"We'll proably die." Loki finished for her.

"Same as if we go back, but I'd rather die in battle, and maybe get something done, than running and getting shot in the back."

"How has it come to this, the army…" Weiss started to say.

"Salem knew we we're coming." Loki cut her off.

"How can you know that!" Jaune said again in a raised tone.

"None of the Grim attacked until all the forces were drawn in and close enough that retreat wasn't possible." Loki took a deep breath "She may have intended for this attack to happen from the beginning." He said with a sigh.

"Why!" Jaune asked the questions that were certainly on the other's minds.

"To cripple humanities fight capabilities, to destroy the will to fight, maybe to brining the fight to battle on her terms, I can't speak to her mind set, but those seem likely."

Jaune was the closest to panicking, he was rubbing his hands through his hair and it was making the other's nervous.

"Jaune come here." Thor said, and Jaune, while panicked came over.

"What?" he asked.

Thor looked at his brother, who nodded and her flipped his spear in his hand, so he was holding out just under the blade, and cracked Jaune over the back of the head, sending him to the ground like a ton of bricks.

"Jaune!" Ruby shouted and ran to him, and gave Thor a betrayed look.

"He was getting hysterical." Thor said "He'll be fine, but we can't have him panicking right now."

"I thought Jaune was made of tougher stuff." Yang muttered.

"Oh, I don't it's his own safety he's worried about." Loki added "I think he's worried about all of you being killed."

"How can you know that?" Yang asked Loki.

"The boy is almost suicidal with his own life if it means protecting one of you, but in here, I think he knows even if he does something mind shatteringly stupid to save one of you it won't matter." He looked over the group " All he has to offer to try and save anyone is his life, and that's not going to be enough in here."

They were silent for some time before Thor spoke one more time.

"If this is to be our end, then let's not die like cowards, let's try and do as much damage to the enemy as possible."

He didn't wait to see if they followed him or not, because he fully intended to see this all the way to it's conclusion.

* * *

 **AN: Okay, tell me what you think.**


	22. Chapter 22

**AN:Just had an Anon called "YourMom" review my story, told me to go die because he didn't like it. So I had my first troll "Hope you die review", so that's pretty cool. Feels sort of like I'm really part of the community now. Deleted the review of course. He said Thor was weak, and if you have been reading, you'd know that is intentional.**

 **Honestly this whole thing should of been out by now, but two things are holding me back for publishing it.**

 **1\. I'm certain I'm going to botch it in some way, screw it up and ruin it. This is part of the reason I'm so intent on re-writing this with a proper beta reader.**

 **2\. This chapter in particular works better, I think, without immediate follow up.**

 **I've also stopped naming chapters, in part because I've having a harder time thinking of titles.**

* * *

The world inside this Grimm reminded Thor of Muspelheim, in appearance if not in temperature. It dominated with red and black, and the 'sky' was blood red, it was a vast rocky wasteland, with a foreboding fortress in the center. But the carnage was familiar as well. The remains of several teams were strewn about and in the distance, he saw their killers. Wendo and at least two of the machine/Grimm hybrids they had fought back at Mistral. If there were more of those monstrosity's lurking around, the survival of the others wasn't high. Just one had taken Mjolnir to kill and that was very far away.

"This is terrible." He heard Blake say behind him. She'd probably seen more of this type of war than anyone else here except for Loki and himself, but that didn't stop the horror from showing in her voice.

He turned to look at the other's and indeed on Loki seemed fine with what lay before them.

"We need to move on." Thor said, "The Grimm will find us if we stay still unless…." He turned to Loki "You can mask our presence with a spell."

For whatever reason, his brother and Weiss exchanged a look, and he didn't know what it meant but his attention was brought back to Loki as he raised his spear. "I can try."

He raised his weapon and over his head then point the tip at the ground, and walked in a circle around them. There wasn't much indication anything was happening but Thor noticed that small pebbled and sand were shifting out of the way from the tip when Loki drew a rune in the ground

"Well?" Thor asked.

"I doubt it will work hold up for long, but it should mask us for…half a day…maybe more, a day at the very most?" Loki said.

"So it's like Ren's semblance?" Nora asked.

"I…tried to replicate some aspects of it yes." Loki added. "It won't last, and frankly it wouldn't matter if it did." Loki looked around "We don't have much time anyway, limited supplies, hostile territory, it's enough time make a plan of action or make peace with whatever gods will have you."

Thor knew his brother was right, time was short, and so were the options. They were blind and underequipped. He didn't care so much for himself, he'd faced odds like this before, and he didn't think his life was so precious that he cared if he died. But he cared if his brother and his friends did.

"We have one chance." Thor said. "First, we need to make sure we're all awake, Loki can you wake him up?"

His brother didn't respond except to pass the spear over Jaune's unconscious form, and the boy started to come to.

"What happened?" He muttered rubbing his head.

"You were getting hysterical so Loki whacked you in the back of the head with a stick." Yang said in her usual candor.

Jaune's face flushed with embarrassment but he didn't say anything.

"If we are going to do anything, we need to make a direct attack on Salem and try and cut the head off the snake." Thor said to the group then gestured at the castle "The fortress is where we'll find her, but we are clearly at the disadvantage here."

"Clearly." Loki added "They have at least one relic, an army of Grimm, those machines, at least one trained huntsman and Salem herself." He looked them over "I'd say we have the element of surprise, but she has the knowledge relic, so she may know we are here."

"So were outnumbered, outgunned and possible at the intel disadvantage." Jaune mumbled "Do we have anything going for us?"

"Some things." Loki said. Thor was impressed how his brother was taking charge, when his tendency was to operate from the shadows. "Ruby's silver eyes are lethal to Grimm." He said "Granted she has yet to master them. We've got Silver-Steel, lethal to the Grimm on contact, and hopefully Salem herself." He added "I've got the Maiden's magic." He tossed his spear from hand to hand as he said this part. "And a wealth of experience with me and Thor."

Silence overcame the group. Thor knew that didn't sound good, but he needed to keep a cool head. One person panicking was bad for group morale.

"So we're more or less screwed." Sun said.

"No." Thor said in his commander voice, the voice he used when directing troops in battle. "If we can get into the fortress unseen we can kill the Queen, if we can do that, the Grimm may die."

"What kind of plan is that? What sort of leader would make their whole army die when their command is taken out?" Weiss said, not even bother to hide the contempt in her voice, but Thor just smiled and looked his brother.

"And overconfident one, who thinks they are untouchable." Thor said.

Loki looked away, being reminded of his own failures was always a sure thing that would irritate him.

"So we…" Blake began saying "basically use the shadow of the assault to hit her while she doesn't expect it."

"More or less." Thor said. "We'll rest here until everything dies down, If Loki's protection circle works, we can wait till she thinks all the soldiers are dead." He hated how cold that sounded, but there was nothing they could do for it.

"Loki." Weiss spoke up "Can this circle protect us from the relics?"

Loki shrugged "It may, but this isn't very powerful camouflage. The relic's power is related to the maiden's power so it may, but there are many things we don't know in this situation, we can only hope."

"Everyone rest up." Thor said "Eat and hydrate, we'll need to be at full energy."

"Shouldn't we ration our food?" Ruby asked.

"It's not going to matter, one way or another, we won't be here for more than 48 hours."

* * *

Loki watched the 'sky', as the flying Grimm soared through it. As they were hunkered down in this small 'protective circle' he felt like a rat cornered by a cat. The protection he'd been able to conjure was little more than a mask, it wouldn't stop even the weakest of Grimm, if it happened to wander blindly through it.

"Loki?" it was Weiss, he wasn't sure if he was losing his touch or if these people were just extra stealthy because they kept sneaking up on him.

"Yes?"

"I…don't remember last night very clearly, but I remember what I said and did."

"I know."

Silence for a moment. "Well?"

"Well what? What do you want me to say?" He said coldly.

"You said make peace with whatever gods will have us."

"Hmm."

"Well…" She said, her tone made it clear she wanted him to say it.

"Well what?" He looked into her eye's and she looked incredibly confused, like she couldn't understand what he was saying.

"Can you drop the 'troublemaker' shtick for a second, we could be dead in a few hours and I'm trying to have a real conversation with you." Her voice was a bit snappish, but a bit he picked up the faint notes of desperation.

"Forgive me." He said turning his gaze back out the wasteland. "You know my history." He sighed "I don't find it easy to connect with others, and those with whom I start to, I tend to sabotage."

"Then just forget it." She huffed and walked away, frustrated.

Loki just kept his gaze on the castle until his brother's voice came from behind.

"Aggravating the girl isn't to our advantage now, we all need to have clear head." His brother paused "Why do you play with her feelings?"

"It's what I do brother, I'm the god of mischief."

"You were the god of mischief, now you are mortal teenager, like them, like me, you don't have to be defined by what you were."

Loki sighed "I know, but a near eternity of past behavior is hard to break. You don't have to change much at all to fit into society, I on the other hand…" he trailed off, not needing to finish the sentence.

"Well get over it soon, we're probably going to be dead in a few hours." Thor said briskly slapping him on the shoulder and walking away.

That was Thor's way of…comforting him, by trying to make it seem like whatever obstacle was a trivial thing. They both knew it wasn't, but it was his brother's way of trying to make think he could do it.

But this wasn't what he was more concerned about. The whole invasion had gone south incredibly quickly, he could only think of sabotage and a traitor. But in all likely hood, if the was the case it was someone he didn't even know. If he got a hold of that relic again, he thought he'd find out.

But there was also the question of why? To him, he could only think of crippling the military or dealing a heavy blow to morale, but fact was he just didn't know and wouldn't know unless he heard it from Salem mouth.

Then there was getting to her. The normal Grimm would be troublesome at best, but those giant…cyborg Grimm he supposed, were much more troublesome. Just one had been hard for everyone here to handle as a group even with standard military and another hunter's support, and they'd only succeeded because it had been knocked onto the damned hammer.

Avoiding those creatures was top priority in moving through the environment.

This was bad, despite the advantages he'd offered to the group, at best, he thought their chances of getting to Salem were less than 1 in 20, never mind what they would do when they got there.

It was odd, the sense of impending doom reminded him of…home.

* * *

Ruby had always thought everything would just sort of…work out in the end. They'd all get there happy ending, beat the bad guys and live happily ever after.

This was not what everything was looking like. They were stuck inside a living abomination, surrounded by the enemy and woefully underprepared. The idea's she'd had of what she wanted to be, now seemed impossible.

She looked at her friends and sister. They were scared, they thought she didn't pick up on these things, but she was much more observant than any of them except Jaune gave her credit for, and he only picked that up because he was like her in many ways. Yang, despite knowing her the longest, seemed to be under the perpetual delusion she was always nine.

The only two who didn't seem scared were Loki and Thor, but even then, she wasn't sure if that was a lack of fear or a mastery of it.

But her attention was drawn to Weiss, who had tried to talk to Loki and walked away upset. Weiss infatuation with the god of mischief was probably her friends worst kept secret. Granted that was largely due to the whole scenario surrounding his introduction into the group, she never really lost the infatuation she had initially. That combined with the time they spent together, it was pretty obvious.

Still, she wanted to talk to her partner and see if she'd come out with it.

"Hey…Weiss?" She said as she walked up to…well you couldn't call any part of the camp secluded due to its size and the number of people, but they could have a conversation here in relative privacy.

"Yes Ruby."

"You wanna talk about it?" Ruby kicked herself for the very vague way she had worded the question, but still she thought Weiss would pick up on it.

"About what?" Weiss responded with a dejected tone, which wasn't what Ruby was expecting, if anything she had expected some sort of snappish tone.

"Ummm…." She looked at Loki then to Weiss "your love life?" She'd done it again, worded her statement is a vague manner. Maybe she wasn't as comfortable discussing this with Weiss as she thought she would be. Weiss gave her "the look", as she thought of it. She narrowed her eyes, frowned and drew her eyebrows together.

But the expression faded and she sighed "You know I was jealous of you and Jaune when you two first got together."

"Oh…" Ruby felt her heart race as an old fear crept to the surface, that Weiss would somehow draw Jaune away, not intentionally, but that the torch he carried for her might break them apart somehow. "I didn't know you…when did you start liking him?"

"Ruby…" Weiss voice sounded incredibly strained, almost embarrassed. "It wasn't him…or just him."

"Huh?" Ruby wasn't quite following, unless of course she was talking about her ignoring her partner. "Weiss, I'm sorry if I haven't had time with you but he's the first guy I've-"

"You're not getting it Ruby." Weiss cut her off, but not looking at her, her face looks tinted red in the this light, almost like she was blushing.

"What am I missing?" She said and realized that Weiss didn't just look like her face was flushed red, it actually was. A thought came into her head, and she thought maybe she wasn't as observant as she thought she was.

"That's beside the point anyway." Weiss pushed on, Ruby could more or less hear how uncomfortable she was and wanted to move on before it got too awkward, and for the time being, she was fine with that. "When you two got together, I was suddenly…by myself, everyone else had someone…special and I was on my own."

"You never really struck me as someone who…you know…cared about being…" Ruby said struggling to say what she was feeling "Like you didn't care what other people had, you sort of…did you own thing." That wasn't the best way to put, but she wasn't as articulate as her friend.

"It was more than that Ruby." Weiss finally looked at her as she spoke "It felt like everyone else was…moving forward, making connections…like they… could get along with other people, and I was still where I was when we were at school." She took a deep breath "like I'd been…left behind in some way. Even when I got back with everyone, I was the only one who'd come alone, Yang had been with Thor, Blake was with Sun." She paused for a moment "You, Jaune, Ren and Nora all stuck together. I was alone up in Atlas, and when I got back with everyone, when you and Jaune started…together…I still felt alone."

"Weiss…" Ruby felt like her heart was breaking for her partner "You were never…we'll always be there for you."

"Ruby." Weiss said "I know that logically, but emotionally, I felt isolated from the rest of the group, I was part of it and not at the same time, if you can understand that."

Ruby didn't, not beyond an abstract concept. But she nodded anyway to try give Weiss some comfort. "So…when Loki, or Gunner I guess when you meet him."

"I was eager to try and build some sort relationship outside the group." She said "Granted, he used his powers to attract me in more, but I don't think it would have worked if I wasn't so eager to try and get something for myself."

"Okay." Ruby said "But why are you still…I mean, he's sort of…" Again, she was having trouble forming her thoughts into words with some level of tact "I mean he tricked you into liking him. Why do you still?" Weiss only looked mildly surprised and Ruby realized Weiss hadn't actually come out and said she did like him, but at this point she'd dropped enough of the information that it was obvious.

"He didn't trick me Ruby." She said "He was deceptive of who he really was, but he didn't trick me into actually going out with him."

"Kay…"

"Still…I didn't even realize that I still…was attracted to him until very recently." She said, "Before then, he was just…a friend who I could talk to about mutual…issues."

"Alright…"

"But I've tried to tell him…twice now that I think about it and he keeps deflecting."

"I think he's got some hang-ups on…people." Ruby said, thinking of her own initial hesitation of making friends at Beacon. Though in Loki's case it less with being socially awkward and more of a lifetime of being mistrusted.

"I know for a fact he does." Weiss said, "But we could be dead soon, he could at least give me a straight answer."

Ruby didn't know what to tell Weiss. She had no experience with someone like Loki, who was such a layerd individual, she didn't know what to expect. Jaune and Blake had been the most deceptive people in her life, and even then, it was more of a secret shame than something intended to hurt someone else. Loki…sometimes he seemed to be deceptive just for the fun of it.

She wanted to help Weiss, but had no clue how to do so.

* * *

"Okay." Thor said to the assemble group "Loki is going to try and mask us each individually so we can try and move to fortress. After that, we'll move out."

"Umm…how is he going to do that?" Jaune asked.

Thor looked at his brother, who took up his spear and slices the palm of his own hand and said, "You can go first." He walked up to Jaune and before he could do anything, painted a rune on his armor in the blood.

"Awww! Gross." Jaune said stepping back to late to stop it.

"It's a spell of concealment." Loki said "With my blood, I can hide you from the enemy sight, the Grimm won't be able to sense you or see you, and even the relic won't be able reveal your location."

Jaune looked at the mark on his armor. "You sure about that last one?"

"Yes." Loki said quickly, the stopping to think for a second "Well, fifty/fifty."

"Okay, I'm going to say this, I don't want your blood on me." Blake said, and Sun was nodding his head in agreement.

"Fine, you can walk around unprotected." Loki said as he walked up to Ruby, who despite some hesitation, accepted the mark.

Thor could tell none of them were thrilled about the blood mark, but it was the best option. They saw that without any need of convincing. Yang accepted it more easily, in part because Loki put it on her prosthetic arm rather than her clothes.

After everyone was marked, Loki dispelled the circle he'd already painted on the ground.

"Let's head out." He said, leading the group "Remember, avoid unnecessary conflict, Loki tells me these seals will break if the Grimm actually touches you, and those machine hybrids may not be affect at all."

* * *

The trek was silent, in part out of practical reasons like wanting to stay alert and keep position's secret. But Yang felt like the others were also incredibly pensive. They all had things on their mind and she wasn't sure if she should tell anyone yet. She thought now wouldn't be the best time, but it would be a hell of a positive surprise if they made it out of this.

They'd avoided three Grimm packs so far, the last one being a troop of Wendo. Those things still unnerved her, how at a distance they could almost pass for human. Not just their silhouettes, but how they moved and interacted with each other, how they used tools and solved problems.

They'd also spotted a few new Grimm she'd never seen before, although at a "safe" distance. One looked like an octopus or squid, but moved through the air like it was underwater. A Grimm that looked like a giant dragonfly. Another that moved in swarm clouds. And the biggest one she'd ever seen, not counting the one they were in, bigger than the Dragon at Beacon, she'd estimate it at three hundred feet tall, it looked like a dinosaur with massive spines or fins with a long tail. It walked upright like a man, but had relatively short arms compared to its massive legs.

She'd never been one for Grimm study, but even she had to admit it was fascinating to see all these new species. She had to remind herself that they weren't real animals, no soul to speak of.

But her mind wandered to the fortress. As they moved towards, it was taking longer than she thought it would, in part from need to avoid areas with heavy Grimm. But also, it was apparently much bigger than it looked from a distance.

She felt tired all of a sudden, like this whole ordeal just kept dragging on longer than the time it actually had.

* * *

"They are out there Doctor." She said looking out the window.

"Yes, my queen." Watts said as Salem looked out the window.

"That little thief, I can feel him." She said and turned back to face him. "But they've masked themselves somehow, the relic can't find them, have you checked the tome?"

"Yes my queen, I'm afraid they know it's magic better than we do, they are lost to us."

"No matter, they will come here isn't that right Qrow?" The man didn't respond, he'd fallen unconscious, he'd been slipping in an out of consciousness for the past few days and Watts was certain he was nearing the end of this life. He was nailed to the wall of the room and infection had set in and his fevered state made it so even when he was waking, he wasn't always coherent. "Doctor wake our guest up."

"Yes, my queen." He went over the man, and put his hand on his head, and charged his body, stimulating his system and he awoke with a scream.

"Good you're up." Salem said, "Your nieces are here."

"No…" he whimpered.

"Yes, walking right into this fortress."

"No…" his voice getting even more pathetic.

Salem loved to see death of hope, which was the only reason Qrow was alive. Bringing him back with the relic had been a wise choice on his part, anything to endure him to his Queen after the destruction of one of the relics.

Salem didn't keep it up for long, for as much as she loved the torment, Arthur knew she and he had work to do. He didn't know how their final plan would progress with only three relics, but he knew that soon they'd have all they could.

"Doctor, how is out contact in Atlas, is he ready to make his move?"

"Yes, my queen. Tyrian will meet up with him soon, we'll have the last relic soon."

"Oh, my dear doctor, that isn't the last relic."

He didn't know what she meant, but for once he thought it would be best not ask questions. It was so close to them, he'd know soon enough.

* * *

Winter sat with her head in her hands, eye's resting in her palms. Her father waited in his room for her. He didn't know, her brother and mother didn't know. This was her fault, she should have been there with Weiss, not commanding from the back.

First, Second and Third waves were considered a complete loss, along with most of the fleet. This was an unmitigated disaster and Ironwood was facing a Court Marshal for gross mismanagement of military assets.

She didn't care, her little sister was gone. All she could think of was how she soured their relationship in the past few days.

If…that was all she could think of was all the if's. If she'd done this or if she'd done that. Now she had to tell the family. What made it worse was she was on the same mission and she was back and her sister wasn't.

"Your father will see you now." A guard said.

Winter stood up and walked into her father's bedroom which had been doubling as his office while he recovered.

"Winter." He said to her as he worked on a tablet "I've heard your operation wasn't successful, maybe next time you and your sister won't put so much faith in that General."

"Father…" Her voice cracked as she spoke and her father clearly heard this and stopped his work and looked up at her. Her eyes were welling with tears and her father's face paled.

"Where is your sister?"

* * *

Whitley just sighed as one of the servants brought him the news. The man had been hard pressed to reveal what he'd been told. Weiss was dead and the Winter was alive.

"You may go." He said to the man "I'll go to my family shortly." The man bowed out of the room and left Whitley alone.

Well, that was at least one of his obstacles were removed. But he'd expected all three to be gone by now, but his sister's little boyfriend had saved their father and Winter had managed to avoid the slaughter.

He'd have to get out of the home and meet with that…bizarre Faunus. He found the man repugnant and unstable, but he'd have to deal with him this one last time. Then the family fortune would be his.

He'd never really felt a strong sense of attachment to them, but he wanted the family company. When that man had offered him a means to finish off his father, while his sisters were disinherited, he thought it would all be his.

But as he walked to air pad to head to academy, he couldn't help but think of how it had backfired on him. The all the company assets had been seized by the military and he'd been left with nothing other the family personal wealth. Too weak, was he? Well they'd all see soon, when he was the only Schnee left and he was given what he was promised.

"You're late young man." An oily and unpleasant vice said to him.

"Tyrion." He muttered "I'm not late I came as soon as I knew the situation."

"Well, whatever you say…Schnee." His tone wasn't ever pleasant, but whenever he talks directly to Whitely he just seem angrier. Typical Faunus attitudes. "You can get me into the Academy."

"Yes, but don't forget what I was promised."

"Yes of course, the Queen always keeps her promises."

"Then we had better hurry, my family will be wondering where I am soon and why I'm not with them mourning my dear sister."

* * *

"We'll rest here." Thor said as they came to rocky outcropping that would offer some cover from the air and most directions. The deeper they went in, the oppressive the air got and harder it was to breathe. He personally felt like he'd been walking for twice as long as he actually had.

Frankly he felt more or less fine, some of the others weren't holding up so well. Nora and Loki didn't seem affected at all. Yang wasn't holding up as well as he would of thought, but looked more or less okay. But Ren and Weiss were flagging pretty badly.

Those two sat down and started to drink what water they had left.

"This air." Ren said "It's sapping my strength."

"I doubt it's anything so deliberate." Weiss said "This place wasn't meant for humans, at least not many or for long periods of time."

"So you're saying what." Jaune asked "That in addition to everything we have to face, now our bodies aren't adapted to the environment?"

"We'll adapt." Thor said "Like going to a higher elevation, we just need to rest a bit."

"That brings up a question." Loki didn't so much ask as state "Do we wait for our bodies to adapt and function at our best, or do we rush in now, while we still haven't been discovered.

Thor looked at them all. While Ren and Weiss were the only ones really suffering from fatigue to the extent they were labored in there breathing, it was still affecting them all. If they rested, they'd lose a day. But the idea of going in at half strength wasn't ideal either.

"If we go in and just get gassed, we aren't going to do very well." Yang added. "But we can't afford to wait until we totally acclimate, that could take weeks."

"Then we're just going to have to stretch out the trip's time." Thor said "Taking breaks."

"We don't need them." Jaune added "We can get there much faster if we don't stop."

"And we'll be dead on our feet." Ruby responded, "We can keep going and not be in any condition to fight."

Thor could tell Jaune knew what they needed to do.

"We'll rest for an hour, then keep moving." Thor said.

* * *

"This is insane." Jaune panted. The air felt thinner than ever, and the air was hot and hard to breathe, almost like it was filled with smoke. He imagined walking near an active volcano felt like. "We need to rest."

"We can't." Ruby said, despite fairing little better than him. "We've already rested twice in the past hour."

It was true, but the environment was getting harsher. It felt like every mile was taking the effort of five or six.

"We'll keep going till we reach that ridge." Thor called out for the front of the group pointing to a stone ridge. "The fortress should be just on the other side, we can get some sleep and move in on it in the morning."

"Who put him in charge." Jaune muttered. He knew it was just the fact he was, tired, thirsty and hungry. Thor was the most qualified in the group to lead them, given he was ten billion years old or something.

The final push up the to the ridge, left him panting and ready to keel over. He dropped on the ground and starting drinking from his canteen.

"We won't have enough supplies to get out." Jaune said to no one in particular. They hadn't planned for extended deployment, at least their group hadn't. They were supposed be guarding a hole and a bullhead.

"If Salem has human associates, which we know she does, then she'll probably have supplies in her fortress, we can take what we need from there."

Thor had moved up to the top of the ridge and was now crawling on his stomach. Jaune could guess he was scouting the area below the ridge.

"We'll have to sleep in shifts." Loki said as everyone rested "This close to the castle, I can't guarantee the cloak will work."

"Great." Jaune muttered.

"Jaune…" Ruby's voice came from his left "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, why?" He lied.

"Ever since we started down here, you've been irritable, rude and not yourself."

Yeah, he had been, but he was being pushed too far with all this. He didn't know how the other's felt, but he was certain that before this was done, he'd see more of his friends die.

"I'm just worried Ruby." He said.

"Sort of makes you wished you listened to my suggestion, huh?"

He looked at her face, saw she was smiling and realized she was trying to lighten the mood. Instead it just made him regret his decision. He didn't like the idea of dying a virgin, but that's what it looked like was going to happen.

"I'm just…tired."

"You don't mean physically do you." She said softly.

"Well, that is an issue, but yeah, it's more…emotional and mental." He sighed.

"We'll be alright." She said "We've got two gods on our side, that's like…gotta be two more than Salem…right?"

"Well…sure." He said, forcing a smile. He didn't feel the need to point that for all the power these two gods had, that were little better off than if they had brought Qrow along. Loki had the maiden's magic, but even that…here didn't seem like enough. His mind wandered to Thor on the bridge, that power…that would of made a difference.

But unless they had a relic to break like then, that probably wasn't going to happen again. It was this thought that got the gear turning in his head, and he looked from Ruby to Thor, who was making his way back to the group.

"We can all get a few hours of sleep." Thor said to the group "Then we can reach the fortress in from here."

"How far away are we?" Loki asked.

"A mile...more or less, though my depth perception isn't the best anymore." He said smiling.

"Ruby." Jaune said "I need to talk to Thor for a minute."

Ruby didn't say anything as he stood up but he thought he saw her face fall a little bit.

"Hey Thor." He said as he walked up to. He was feeling kind of stupid, given he was sure he'd already this a thought. "Can I talk to you?"

"Sure…about what?" He face, scared and almost ominous in this light unnerved him a bit, but didn't let that stop him.

"Back in Mistral, you used a relic to…get your power's back."

Thor raised his hand showing he understood "I know where you're going with this, and I'll assure I've thought of it."

"Well? Do you think you can do it again?"

Thor shrugged "I can certainly try, We know she has one relic inside at least, I can feel it…very faintly."

"Good so you just smash it, do your hocus pocus and 'bam' we leave." He said his spirit risings at the thought.

"Well that was certainly my first plan, but we have to be realistic, we may not be in a position do so."

That didn't make him feel much better, but the idea that they may not be doomed, the hope swelling in his chest, he suddenly felt thirty pounds lighter and the air felt less oppressive.

"Get some rest." Thor said "We'll need everything we can get tomorrow."

That was true, and for once in the whole debacle, he felt himself relax.

* * *

Loki stared at the "sky" as he lay on the ground, and was thinking of how much he missed the stars. This blood red 'sky' was a pale imitation.

It was his turn to sleep, but he didn't feel tired. The three who were supposed to be sleeping at least looked like they were.

"Loki." An all too familiar voice said. "I want to try and talk to you one last time, and I want you to actually talk to me."

He closed his eye's and sighed "If you insist Weiss."

"Look." She said sitting down next to him "I like you, do you like me or think that you could or give it a chance."

Loki just looked at the sky "I thought you were hung up your partner and her boyfriend." He didn't need to look at her to know her face was flushing.

" I was…jealous for a little while, but I've moved on."

"No you haven't not completely, how you look at her, how you look at him." He turned his head to look at her "Is it odd to be attracted to two people individually who are dating."

"Yes, it's awkward and confusing at the same time." She said "But even if there are some…feelings left, I've learned to accept the situation."

"So I'm your…third choice."

"Don't make it sound like that." She said "I didn't meet you till after all of that."

"What is it you want to hear?" He said, coolly and distantly.

"The truth." She said "I know that's hard for you but please try." He tone was firm and uncompromising.

"Fine." He said taking a deep breath. "The truth is…I do find myself attracted to you." He looked in her eyes and say something he absolutely hated to see in the eyes of someone like her. It was hope. "I connect with you in ways I don't with other's here." Her eyes were making him sick and he needed to get this over with. "But I'm no good for you." He said "I'll hurt you somehow some way."

"Well." She started "What if I don't care about that." Her tone was attempting to stay strong but, he could hear the hurt.

"Then you are a fool." He looked away and back at the 'sky'. He suddenly felt her body lying next to his.

"Then call me a fool, I don't care, we aren't likely to live much longer anyway." She said.

They lay there for some time before one of them spoke, it was Weiss. "This isn't as romantic as people make it sound."

"Well the lack of real stars and sky probably doesn't help." He said, chuckling slightly, and despite his better judgment wrapped an arm around her shoulder.

"So…what does this make us?"

"Whatever you want." Loki said "For however long we have."

She didn't say anything and soon her breathing slowed into that of someone sleeping. He looked at her, confirming his suspicions.

He felt himself drifting off as well. He closed his eyes and fell asleep.

He dreamt again, but this was different.

* * *

He was in the wasteland of the Grimm, but alone. This wasn't a normal dream, it was lucid and…real.

"Loki." A voice emanated from the mist. It was soft, pleasant and alluring. But laced with poison.

"Show yourself." He said "We are both too old for this."

At this a woman with skin pale as paper and hair to match appeared. Her eyes were Grimm like and veins ran along her face. She looked like a Grimm, but in human form.

"Loki, the trickster." She said in an even confidant tone.

"Salem, I presume." He said, crossing his arms, not at all impressed. Surtur and Ymir definitely cut a more impressive figure.

"I won't waste time with you, but cut right to the point." She smiled at him "I want to make you a deal."

"What kind of deal?" He said, but not hiding his interest in her words.

"You want your power back." She said " I can give it to you."

"If I thought you could give me back what I lost, I'd already be there." He said "How can you give it to me?"

"I have three relics." She said "If I collect the fourth, then reality will bend to my will." She said smirking "If you deliver the fourth to me, I will grant your wish."

"It's gone." He said "My brother destroyed it."

"No." She said "That power still resides in him, sleeping but there, I need him and if you deliver him…I will grant you your powers back."

"Well." He said "That is interesting…tell me more."

* * *

Thor woke up after his uneventful sleep. He sat up, working the stiffness out of his arms and leg, both real an artificial.

He looked to see who else had been sleeping if they had woken up, and sure enough they had.

"Let's eat." He said to everyone present "Don't' worry about rations." He looked around at everyone "If we don't make it now, it won't matter."

The reactions from everyone was different. Yang and Nora ate with gusto. Ruby near matched them, but everyone else seemed much less willing to eat.

He hated this. He'd lead warriors to their death before, but not in such a manner. But this was this world only choice.

He needed to fight through to the end, they all did, that was the only choice to end this. If he could reclaim his power for a just a few minutes, he'd be able to finish this once and for all.

But this was the final effort. He wanted to talk to Yang about everything. He wanted to stay here, as a mortal, with her. He'd felt this way before, but it didn't stop the desire to live as one of them, as a mortal. But he never could, he had to see those he loved die.

Mortality seemed like a gift to him, to finally sleep at the end of all things. He was tired with all things considered. He was ready to let it all fade out.

But that wasn't the case for the other's, even his brother. He seemed much more lively than before as he made himself ready for the day. He'd noticed him and Weiss sleeping next to each other and he thought he knew what had happened. Nothing physically, but they may have finally come to terms with their feelings for each other, whatever those may be or however complex they were.

Thor checked to see if the mark Loki had drawn on him was still there and sure enough it was. He'd be taking a back seat today on the approach to the fortress. He didn't know anything about its layout, and Loki, while not knowing it well, knew more than any of them thanks to the relic he had in his possession for a short time.

"Brother!" He called "You ready to show us the way."

Loki didn't respond at first, but fiddled with his spear before answering "To the best of my ability." He said "There isn't much a covered approach to be had." He said "But we can stay in partial coved if we stay near some of the larger rock formations."

"I thought we were cloaked." Jaune asked Loki, to which Loki responded.

"From Grimm, but normal humans will see us as easily as we see each other. Those machines may still be able to see us and Salem may or may not be affected, best not risk it."

"Okay…"

"Let's go." Was all else his brother said before heading up the ridge for the final push.

"This air, does it feel colder all of a sudden?" Ruby whispered to Jaune "Like as soon as we got over the ridge, it felt like it dropped twenty degrees."

"Yeah." Jaune said "Look at those spawning pits." Point to a number of pits full of the black tar that spawned Grimm "It's almost like we walked into a nest, and this bowl is like an incubator."

"But incubator's keep thing warm Jaune."

"Yeah, but Grimm are like 'anti-life', so maybe they grow better in the cold."

"I guess…" She said as a Beowulf walked past them, blind to their presence. At least the runes kept the Grimm off them.

The air was getting easier to breathe too, like after they got over the ridge it became more suitable for humans, which might make sense if Salem had humans on hand.

They were in the shadow of the fortress now and she didn't know how they were getting in. Loki seemed to know, and she didn't know if that made her feel better or worse.

As she watched him from near the rear of the group she wondered if he could be trusted, but knew their options were limited either way. Then he disappeared from view between her blinks.

"What the?" She muttered and for a moment she thought he'd bugged out and left them. Then she saw Thor jump down into a trench. She hadn't noticed because of the dark color of the soil and dirt, and soon the others were following down.

Once she and Jaune got to it, she saw it what was looked like a natural fissure in the ground about eight feet deep with a small stream of water coming through. IT did not smell pleasant.

"This is used as drainage for the fortress." Loki said. "We can follow it into the lower levels of the building."

"You looked up this much detail?" Yang asked, wrinkling her nose at the smell.

"No, I just know that every building like this has to have water flow somewhere."

"And you're sure this is that?" Jaune said looking the stream.

"The smell gives it away." Thor said.

"It sure does." Blake said covered her nose and mouth her hand, and Ruby felt a stab of sympathy for her friend. As unpleasant as it was for her, it had to be ten times worse for Blake, and it would only get worse the further they went in.

"This is so foul." Weiss muttered as they sloshed through knee-high runoff from the fortress, which they were now under.

"Well, at least we'll have an excuse to go shopping after this." Yang offered in an attempt to comfort her. Her own boots were ruined, and everyone's clothes were ruined. It wasn't as bad a sewer runoff, but it wasn't much better either.

"Here." Loki said, pointing up with his spear, lighting the tip with what had to be magic. The light showed a steel grate.

"Well." Thor said standing under it. "Brother." He said cupping his hands and letting Loki step into his hands and lifted him up to the grate. Loki slide the tip of the spear in the grooves between the stone and steel and slide it along the line.

Yang heard something like grinding gears, and slight 'thunk' and Loki climbed up into the hall. Thor started to help the other's up, until it was her turn.

"Now I hope you didn't look up any skirts while you did this." She said, trying to be playful in the situation.

"Just Loki's." He said smiling at her and let her step into his hands and lifting her up.

Following that, Thor hooked the beard of his ax onto the ledge and pulled himself up.

"This way." Loki said, and Yang wondered how he knew any of this, unless it was his magic.

They followed him down the hall until they reached an open hall roughly five times the size of the one they were walking in, with three other halls leading out.

"Well, which way now brother."

Loki raised a hand and Thor went silent.

"I'm surprised you all trusted me to lead you in this far." He said while not turning to look at them.

Yang made to move up to the front of the group but her boot had to peel away from the floor, which it wasn't doing earlier.

Looking down, she saw the black stone floor was looking…shinier, like it was wet. Something was wrong.

"Brother…you know…." Thor began, but his brother cut him off.

"This place, is tricky." He said "Traps are a certainty, and falling into just one could lead to end of all this."

Something about his tone that was unnerving her, and looking around at the other's she could tell they were feeling the same thing.

"Tell me brother, who am I?"

"Brother…" Thor began, there was a fear in his voice that scared Yang, there was a note of fear in it.

"Who am I?" He said again.

Weiss stepped forward reaching out to his back, she said "Loki-" and as she reached to touch him, her hand passed right through him like a ghost.

He turned on them all, smiling widely. "That's right!" He lifted his arms wide and Yang felt her feet sink into the floor. Rage pumped through her body and her semblance activated, but she could break free of the tar-like substance. She fired at Loki, but the shot passed through his hologram.

His image faded and the last thing she heard was his voice echoing through the hall.

"I AM-"

And just before she was completely submerged she heard him cry out the only thing that could truly described him.

"LOKI!"

* * *

 **AN: I'd say expect the next chapter in two days, but given that I've shown I can't be trusted in that regard, I'll just say expect it soon.**


	23. Chapter 23

**AN: This the chapter I least certain of and probably the reason for the update being delayed as much as it was despite the fact it was done. More of less the climax, I have two more chapters written, but I'm only going to post the one after this for sure. The last in a Epilogue that I may or may not post. Depends.**

* * *

The cells were far worse than the ones they'd been put in at Atlas. Those had been clean if cramped, these cells were huge, but they were dark and damp, and a faint sweet smell like something was rotting nearby.

Yang wondered where the two brothers were now. Loki had turned out to be the snake they all had suspected he was, yet they had fallen for it. The last thing she remembered seeing before the floor had swallowed her and the other's and waking up here was Thor throwing his ax at his brother's hologram, that hologram with that stupid smirk.

Thor hadn't been brought to where ever they were, and she was worried about him. But she had a whole bunch of other friends who needed to be worried about. As it was now only her, Jaune and Nora were awake, and the other's were still asleep. They'd tried to wake them up, but it was almost like they had been drugged, and as she thought of this thought they probably had been, she herself felt slow and sluggish, like she'd had a rough night drinking.

She knew that those awake now had most likely simply had shaken off the effects sooner. She looked at Weiss and thought it might be kinder to leave her asleep anyway. She was going to be incredibly hurt with Loki's betrayal. For her own part, Yang was just furious with Thor's brother, next time she saw him, she didn't care what was between them, she'd put her fist through his face.

None of them had been disarmed, and Yang and Jaune had soon found out why. The chitinous bars of the cell did not break easily, and whenever they had made some sort of damage, the black tar that the Grimm formed out of seeped out to fill in the damage.

If they were going to have any hope of breaking the cell, they'd all have to hit at the same time. Jaune had thought of using the Silver-steel to burn the bars, but what little they had was gone, apparently Loki had told Salem what they had and she'd taken measures to remove it from the equation.

There was another cell she could see, across the hall, and she thought she might see a body in it, but the light was so low she couldn't tell if it was something or just a trick of the low light. Blake would be able to see when she woke up.

Right now, her only concern was getting everyone out alive, no matter how slim that chance may be. And if she couldn't do that, she'd settle for taking Loki out.

"I knew we couldn't trust him." She heard Jaune mutter behind her.

"I wish I could say it was unavoidable." Yang said turning to him "But that's what we get for trusting a trickster god."

"But he seemed like he was coming around." Nora added, her tone somber.

"Yeah, but can we even know that for sure? I mean the guy's whole deal is he can trick anyone." Jaune said.

"Fucking trickster." Yang muttered.

They sat in silence, waiting for the rest of their friends to wake up. While they did so Yang looked at Jaune, and found herself wondering something about her sister's boyfriend. With nothing else to do, and no way out of the cell at the time. She thought now was as good a time as any.

"Jaune." She started, causing him to look up at her "how far have you and Ruby gone?"

To her slight surprise Jaune didn't blush, stammer or get flustered, he looked like he didn't have the energy to. He just answered.

"Not as far as you and Thor." He said.

Brushing her surprised off she continued "Have you…talked to her about that?"

"Not really, she'd brought it up a few times, but I'm not comfortable with it."

"Why is that?"

"Is this really a conversation you want to have?" His tone and face showed some irritation, but she didn't back down.

"Why not? We're stuck here for now, and until everyone else wakes up, I don't think we're going anywhere."

Jaune chewed the inside of his cheek before answering her first question "It's weird with Ruby. I like her and we're dating ,but when I think about being…intimate with her, I have this mental block."

"That's good." A gravely, and familiar voice called from the other cell.

All three were startled and looked at the source of the voice, and Yang felt her heart jump into her throat, she knew that voice anywhere. "Uncle Qrow?"

"Hey kiddo." He said, as he walked to the bars of his cell, more into the light. "I'm glad I got to see you one more time."

"Qrow…what the hell, I thought you were going to Shade Academy?" Jaune asked.

"I was…I did, but I was too late to stop it, she got the relic, and took me hostage." He sighed "I haven't had a drink in…I don't know how long."

Hope was draining from Yang like she a hole in her stomach. They were captured, no help on the outside except a fractured and defeated Atlas task force.

"How are we going to get out?" She asked her Uncle, knowing it was pointless, if he'd known that he'd be gone by now, but she had to talk or else she might cry.

"We don't, not unless your mother comes looking for us and uses her portal to get us out."

"So we're screwed." Jaune muttered, and Yang wished she had a reason to be mad at him over doubting her mother, but she more or less felt the same way.

"You don't have any of that silver stuff to burn these bars?" Her uncle asked.

"The only silver here is Ruby's eye…."Jaune said trailing off in his line of thought.

It took Yang a moment to realize what he was thinking. Ruby had silver eye's, that were lethal to Grimm, and this cell was just one giant Grimm.

"Ruby!" Yang shouted and ran over to her sleeping sister and started to shake her. "Ruby wake up!" She shouted.

"Don't waste your time." Qroq said "She'll wake up once the tranq wears off, till then, it would be better to try and figure out how to get her to use those powers, which I'll remind you she's only done once in her life."

"Right." Yang muttered "So how do we do it?"

* * *

"You've done it again brother." Thor muttered as he hung from the wall, his arms and legs bound in the living membrane of the massive Grimm.

"What's that?" Loki said as he examined the relics laid out before him. The pen he'd had, the relic of knowledge, and the relics for creation and destruction, a carpenter's hammer and a dagger respectfully. " I rather like this one." He said handling the dagger.

"Made a fool of me, why do I ever bother trusting you?"

"Because you are blinded by love." Loki said. "Now I would suggest you not fight what Salem is going to do to you, it's going to hurt, but will be easier if you just let it happen."

"What is that?" Thor sneered as he asked.

"You have the relics power inside you, the one you broke, and she needs it to complete the set."

"That power is gone Loki, this mortal form can't contain such raw power."

"That's what I thought, but the power of choice, well I think you subconsciously suppressed it, using its own power to contain it. The power to choose in all things, you chose to keep it hidden deep down."

Thor didn't trust a word of what his brother said. If he'd had that power, he'd of used it to kill this creature and Salem with one bolt of lightning.

"Your brother is right you know." A voice he didn't know said drifted out from the shadows of the room.

"Salem." He muttered.

"The mighty Thor." She said. "I've wanted to meet one of you Asgardians for some time now." Loki made a noise at this, but Salem ignored it. Apparently, she didn't count Loki as an Asgardian.

"What do you know of Asgard." He spat at her.

"Well that depends, what do you remember before coming to our world?"

Thor looked at his brother, and saw he was listening intently, so whatever she was going to say, he believed his brother hadn't heard.

"Nothing." He said .

"You poor little god." She said in a tone that dripped with venom but was oddly alluring at the same time. "You don't know?"

"Know what?" He sneered.

"The gods of Asgard are dead. They have been for eons."

Thor scoffed at this, how could she know this, and she clearly saw he didn't believe her. She produced a book, which Thor recognized as one of the set on his people. She walked over to the table with the relics, picked up the quill and wrote in it.

After she was done, she threw it on the floor so he could see what was written.

All it said was "Where are the gods?" and the response appeared "Dead."

"But I am here, and so is my brother, such as he is." Thor said "Your little trick didn't address that."

"Yes." She said as she approached him with quill in hand "But I'm afraid you two no longer count."

"You'll have to do more than use some cheap magic tricks to convince me." He said. He'd seen more tricks than most, and he wasn't so quick to believe the enemy.

"Very well." She took the quill and before he knew what happened, stabbed it into his side. The pain wasn't as bad as he would of thought, but she triggered the lever and he felt the liquid pumping into his body. "Show him the fate of his family." She said.

His vision turned white and he started to see flashes of a battle, a massive war between Asgard and the Giants. His friends, family and people, dying in droves under the feet of Surtur and Fennris. But more than that, he knew this was real, in a supernatural way, he knew this was true.

The quill was pulled out with a sudden ferocity and his vision returned.

"A more direct approach than writing the questions out." She whispered in his ear, a smile on her lips. He looked at her with his one good eye, and felt tears running down his face. "They died, here on this world, in fact the iron in their blood made this interesting little metal." She raised a piece of the silver-steel.

"Why…" he muttered.

"I couldn't say why they choose this world." She said "By the time the gods of light and darkness came here, the Aseir were long dead."

Thor looked at his brother, who hadn't seen the vision, but was clenching his jaw tightly. He's thought this was a test from his father, but now…

"Why us then?" He said "Why me and Loki."

"I don't know and I don't care to ask." She said. "Your brother only cares if his powers are returned, he has none of the sentiment you have."

"What is your goal?" he muttered.

She smiled "Once I have the power from you, I can finally make my children the proper rulers of this world."

"The Grimm?"

"Yes." She said "I can only manipulate the primordial pools they rise from, but they don't have true life, but with the relics I can give them that, and they will take their proper place in this world."

"So you want to kill all humans?" He said.

"Not specifically, but that will certainly be a result of it. I'm more than fine killing their hope, they will die off on their own after."

Thor couldn't help but laugh at this comment.

"Oh, what's so funny little god?"

"You want to kill humanities hope." He said, laugh some more, despite his sorrow.

"You think I can't?" She seemed amused by the idea that she couldn't.

"I've seen far worse than you try, and fail. Humans are much stronger than you think." He said smiling up at her, now seeing he was making her mad, and loving it. "You can't kill hope."

"Hope is foolish and dangerous, and self-destroying." She said "It inevitably causing those who have it to break in their disappointment." She smirked a little at this, despite the fact it was clear she was getting angry "It's a terrible thing for humans really, it just makes everything hurt more."

"No." He said, smiling still "Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies." He said.

"Well then." She was done playing now "Let's hope that's true for you, because if it's not, you won't last long, but you're such a good man, so you don't have anything to fear."

* * *

"My head hurts." Ruby muttered as she watched her friends circle around her. "What do you want me to do?"

"Use your silver eye's to try and burn the bars." Yang said, rubbing her sister's back.

"But I can't control it." She muttered, thinking of the one time she'd managed to pull off the feat.

"Well just try to think of what triggered it in you the last time." Qrow said from his cell.

"But that was…" she didn't like to think about it, but if that was what she needed to do. She thought about it and…nothing happened. She tried again and still nothing.

"It's probably not a sharp enough feeling anymore." Qrow muttered.

She hated to agree with it, but he was probably right, she had made peace with what had happened to Pyrrha. She still felt sadness and guilt, but it wasn't anything like what she'd felt when she saw her die.

She wished she'd had time to train this power, but as it was now, it was only reactive.

"So much for that plan." Yang muttered, slumping down on the floor.

"How much dust do you have?" Blake asked.

"If we put everything we have on the bars, we might be able to break it open for a bit, but then we're going to be left with nothing by melee options." Weiss muttered. She'd been sitting in the corner, sulking, which Ruby understood, after what Loki had done.

"If only we had some of the steel." Jaune said slamming his fist into the wall.

"Well we don't." Yang said "Loki took it all."

Ruby hadn't ever felt this hopeless. They might get out, but if they did, they'd of used all their ammunition.

She walked over to Weiss, leaned against the wall and slumped next to her on the ground.

"I'm sorry." She said to Weiss.

"For what?" She responded without looking at her.

"For everything that's happened, for not being able to get us out."

"It's not your fault, you didn't get any training, and the rest isn't your fault, it's that snake Loki."

Ruby didn't know if it was wise to try and talk to Weiss about that right now, and looked around for another topic of discussion.

He eye's landed on Weiss and she noticed her partner had a necklace with a locket on it she'd never seen before, at least didn't recall her wearing it.

"That's a nice necklace, did your sister give to you?" She realized after she said it that she was taking a gamble, given it might of come from Loki.

"What are you talking about?" Weiss gave her a look of confusion.

"That." Ruby said pointing necklace.

Weiss hand drifted to the necklace and her eye's widened ever so slightly.

* * *

"So, you're certain you can extract the power from him Doctor." Thor heard Salem say to the very Doctor who'd robbed his brother back in Mistral.

"Yes, I can transfer it directly to you my Queen, then we can do so with the rest of relics."

"Good." She said and sat in a throne-like chair, that seemed to alive and linked to himself. "You may start the process."

The doctor started up the machine, or creature, he really couldn't tell the difference at this point. His brother watch, and looked like he was waiting for something.

Then he heard it or more accurately felt it, an explosion from somewhere below.

"Seems like your friends aren't taking to their cells very well." The doctor said "Not that it will do them any good, They could blast those cells with a full artillery barrage and not get out."

"Take Tyrian and go silence them. "Salem said from her Throne.

"My Queen…the procedure."

"Will still be here, but I don't want my ascension in godhood to be disturbed by that racket."

"Yes my queen." He bowed out and set off for the cells, or so Thor assumed.

"Looks like your friends have bought you a few more minutes." She said standing up and walking to him. "Those cells are very unique, they give the impression of looking like they are giving way only to regrow. No matter what is thrown at them, they only ever take the same amount damage, another little trick to destroy hope."

"What about that steel?" Loki voice came from behind her. "Would that burn through it?"

"Yes, I believe it would, but you took all they had." She said, not even bothering to look at his brother, just smiling at him, very pleased with the mental torture she was sure was being inflicted on her prisoners.

"Not exactly." Loki's voice came from behind her and Thor only caught the expression of confusion on her face before the blade of his spear erupted from Salem's chest.

Her black and red eye's went wide and with a lighting quick reaction she turned and backhanded his brother across the room.

She clenched her chest which was a smoking from the attack. "You little worm." She hissed as the wound closed.

Loki was already on his feet, his spear glowing. "Come now, you can't be that surprised, can you?" He smirked. "God of mischief, remember."

"You'll be a dead god now." She waved her hand and the room seemed to come alive, like the trap Loki had sprung on them, and the black tentacle shot towards his brother.

His brother swung the spear more like a club or ax, cutting the tentacles, and they froze and shattered. He then stabbed the tip into the ground and a layer of ice coated the room, keeping the floor from swallowing him.

"You aren't dealing with a novice here you pretender." He said "I was fooling Odin himself before you were even a thought in your creators mind."

"You little worm." Salem said, and shed her heavy robes "I'll kill you myself."

"Come and try then." He smirked as he said this and Salem charged him.

* * *

Weiss clenched the locket to her chest, it gave her hope, hope that she hadn't been wrong. When she'd opened it, it didn't have anything in it except a message carved into the silver metal.

"Make some noise on your way out'- L.

The chain was silver-steel and they'd cut the locks off the cells and made their way out. It had to be Loki, she hadn't had this before they'd entered the castle, he had to of given it to her.

But now as they ran through the fortress, she could help by wonder why the deception had been needed. These were questions for later, right now they needed to…do something.

Right now they were just running through the castle, killing the few Grimm that patrolled it. The section they were in was a hall with very high ceilings and halls wide enough for several cars to drive down side by side, with several halls of similar size branching off. She wondered why this building was built with such large dimensions.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" An unfamiliar voice called from one of the side halls.

Weiss turned to see two men she'd never seen before, at least in person, yet she recognized the one with mustache from one Loki's drawings from the relic.

"A little prison break it looks like." The mustached man said. "I think I need to call in the reinforcements." He pulled something out of his pocket and pressed a button.

Before they could react, the floor started to shake and open up.

"What is that?" Ruby wondered out loud as something came up from the floor.

"I call it the "Warden"." The mustaches man said. "For just such an occasion.

As it rose up from the floor Weiss saw what it was. It looked like the Grimm-Machine hybrid they'd fought at Mistral, only bigger and much more heavily armored.

The other man, a Faunus she had to assume was the man called Tyrian. He gave her a very…disturbing look at the "Warden" marched on them, slowly but deliberately.

"So, the little Schnee is alive, your brother was quite concerned about you, you know."

What? How did this man know her brother?

* * *

Loki was crafty, Loki was smart, and he was a deadly fighter in his own right. But there were two things he didn't have anymore. His powers or the Jotun physicality he once enjoyed.

Thor watched his brother start to flag as Salem moved around him like a snake, she seemed to be made of smoke at times. He landed a few hits on her, but she wasn't like a Grimm or a human, she recovered from the attacks quickly, while he was stacking damage.

This wasn't going to end well for his brother. The magic he had wasn't strong enough to make a difference.

Salem threw Loki across the room like a ragdoll and he slammed into the ice wall he'd made with enough force to fracture it and he actually bounced off it and barely managed to land on his feet.

Salem knew that this wasn't even a fight anymore and strolled up to Loki while he wobbled on his feet. He raised his spear, balanced it in his hand, and threw it at her.

It flew with a fair amount of speed but missed her by several feet. She laughed at this and grabbed Loki the throat and slammed him into the already fracturing ice, exposing the black living wall beneath.

"You were supposed to be the smart one." She whisper in his ear. "Now." She let go of him and the living wall started to form around Loki's body, starting to swallow him "You've killed yourself."

"No." He whispered "I've killed you."

Thor saw what his brother was talking about. While she had him against the wall, she hadn't noticed the spear had lodged into the wall next him, if he could just reach it.

"I suppose the last hit addled your mind." She said as he disappeared in the wall.

As he said this, Thor managed to grip the made of the spear, and felt the power in it. He realized in that moment that Loki had none of the magic in him anymore, he's put it in the spear.

He felt the power surge, and with it, called the lighting.

* * *

Yang fired three quick blast at the "Warden" to no effect. This wasn't looking good, the one they'd fought in Mistral had been bad enough, but this one was stronger and they didn't have the forces they had then.

Her Uncle was fighting the doctor and Ruby and Jaune were trying to fight the Faunus, and none of them were doing well. Her Uncle wasn't at full strength, and the man Jaune and Ruby were clearly out of their league.

But none of the rest of them couldn't help, the Warden was taking all their effort to just hold it off.

Then damn thing was not only tough, but it was armed to the teeth. It had firepower that Grimm never used, and it mixed them typical Grimm projectile like spines.

Why? They were on a damn roller-coaster here, hope and despair switching what felt like every two hours.

And where was Thor? Where was Loki? Had he helped them? So many questions.

Her thoughts were broken by the clap of thunder so loud it shook the fortress. "Thor." She muttered, and before she knew what happened, she felt a sharp pain in her clavicle. Looking down, she saw a Grimm spine sticking out of her chest.

She realized she was in the air, flying back, she hadn't even realized it had lifted her off the ground. She felt numb.

The last thing she heard was she sister calling out her name.

* * *

Salem didn't dare move as Thor stood over the remaining relics, holding the dagger in his hand, the relic of destruction, ready to strike the other relics. He already destroyed one, now holding the dagger he was now ready to finish the job.

"Now don't do anything rash." She said, keeping her composure as Thor stood ready to crush all her plans.

"Let my brother go." He said, and she sneered but waved her hand and the wall released Loki.

"How did you get out?" She said, trying to keep him talking.

"My brother's spear, you were so certain you had him, you just assumed he missed." He looked like he was smirking at her.

The brother in question was lying on the floor next to her. He tried to crawl away, but she grabbed his shoulder.

"Now Thor let's talk about this like reasonable…deities." She said.

"You are no god." He said.

"Neither are you." She said "But I have your brother here, and your friends in my prison, we can make a deal."

"No you don't" Loki muttered weakly, and both she and Thor looked at him. His left eye was swollen shut and blood was running down the side of his face, but he was smiling "I got them out, I'd dare say your little minions are rather preoccupied with them"

"You little!" She sneered and struck him in the head again.

"Salem!" Thor shouted, raising the dagger.

She froze, but saw he wasn't making his move yet. Why though? He could of destroyed all the relics if he wanted, what was stopping him?

"Do it!" Loki shouted, and while she didn't hit him again, she squeezed his shoulder hard enough to make him flinch.

Thor held the power Salem wanted hostage, but he didn't strike. He didn't know for certain if the effects would the same, but what worried him more was the fact that if he let loose here he ran the risk of killing everyone here.

As he watch his brother bleeding at the hands of this witch, he found it harder to actually strike. If the Grimm was back underwater, then only he'd live if he destroyed it, and he didn't think he could tolerate the deaths of his loved ones, especially if he cause it.

But what choice did he have? What were a dozen people compared to the millions who lives could be saved. Now that the choice was here, it was harder to make.

Then his brother shouted "Do it!"

Without thinking about it anymore, he brought the dagger down on the quill and hammer, Salem shouted and lunged at him throwing his brother aside and they were all consumed by the light.

* * *

Dr. Watts watch as his prized creation smoked and boiled in a flash of light from the Rose girl. The silver eye's, he hadn't thought that would affect his creation, but here it was, toppled by her outburst.

"This isn't possible." He muttered. Then he felt it. It was a fleeting sensation crossing his neck, like someone had blown across it. Then the warm sensation running down his front, he looked down and saw the whole front of his clothes straining red with blood…his blood.

He looked around in a fogging daze and saw Qrow standing to his right, his sword stained red. He tried to say something but that came out was a gurgling sound, and the world greyed out as he fell to the ground.

Tyrian watched as his 'partner' and his toy fell. It was time to go, he was outnumbered and outgunned.

As he made to move his feet felt cold and they wouldn't move, looking down, he saw his feet were frozen to the ground, and he looked up just in time to see a large hammer crash into his face.

* * *

"Yang!" Ruby shouted as she ran to her sister, who lay unmoving on the ground.

"Mmmmm" was all the noise she made as she started to stir.

"Are you Okay?"

"I think my collarbone is broken." She said. "Stand back for a second." She Gripped the spine as hard as she could, gritted her teeth and pull. She yelled in pain, but it didn't come out. She pulled again and this time yelled even louder, but this time pulled it free. Despite the pain she remained upright, but was panting and feeling light headed. "Did we win?" She said looking around.

"I think so…" Ruby said as she looked around. The machine was down, it was still moving but it looked like a dying animal. The Doctor was dead and the one nut case was captured and slung over Nora's shoulder, hod tied.

"What about Salem?"

"Yang you weren't out for more than a few seconds, we don't know what's going on elsewhere." She said "We heard a loud thunder crack though, so that might mean-"

Before she could finish a loud explosion came from the ceiling at the far end of the hall, blowing a massive hole in ceiling. And out from the smoke came Thor, back in his godly attire, holding his hammer again. But something was wrong, he wasn't flying in a controlled manner, he looked like he'd been blasted through the ceiling.

He managed to right himself and land on his feet yet he still slid along the ground.

"Thor!" She and Yang both yelled.

He didn't have any of the confidence they had seen on his face the last time he transformed. He looked scared.

"You all need to leave now!" He shouted.

"Why?" Ruby asked "You have your power back, you can just finish this."

"I'm not the only one who got a power-up." He said darkly.

Out of the hole came a…thing. It looked like Black Tar, but had the vague shape of a human, Eventually it formed into a giant woman who stomped down the hall making the building shake.

Thor spun his hammer and fired a massive lightning bolt at the…thing and blew it to pieces.

"Well that was-" Ruby started but the walls started to move and melt, and soon it started to run like hot wax and form into another humanoid form.

"She's become one with this Grimm, the only way to kill her is to destroy this Grimm." Thor said "But I can't do that with all of you here." He electrocuted more of the substance, temporarily rendering it unmoving. "You need to leave."

"How are we going to do that oh mighty god of thunder." Qrow said "This whole thing is going to be trying to kill us now."

As he said this, the once fluid looking walls solidified and started to frost over. Soon the whole hall was coated in ice.

"Loki." Thor said and his brother jumped down from the hole in the ceiling.

Loki walked to the center of group, raised his hand over his head and the ceiling and roof of the fortress burst into ice dust so fine it shimmered in even in the low light and the shards feel onto them like snow.

Loki just said, "Going up." And the ice they all stood on rose to through the hole he'd made and started to rise to the roof of the Grimm's Shell.

"Loki." Weiss said, but apparently couldn't think of anything else to say.

"I'm back to me, for now, Thor destroyed the relics." He said to her instead "But we didn't count on Salem gaining power from it as well, look." He point into the wasteland below, and while it had never look good, now it looked like a bubble cauldron of tar and half formed creature.

Ruby looked over the edge and barely missed a massive nevermore taking her head off. Only now it had the head an torso of a woman, like a giant harpy. If weren't for the fact it looked like they were fused together in a painful an unnatural way, she'd have thought it was a new species of Grimm.

"Brother the ceiling is coming up." Loki called as their elevator of Ice neared the top of the chamber.

A massive bolt of lightning didn't just crash through the shell, but seemed to vaporize it and Ruby could see the sky, as distant as it was.

The sheet of Ice rose up through the hole and it wasn't long before Ruby realized it was closing in around them.

"Loki!" She cried and but there was nothing to fear as ice coated the walls, much like the time they traveled down, only on a much large scale.

Much faster than she would of thought, they broke the surface and the salt air felt like the first breath she'd ever taken. The sky was so blue, and the relief she felt was something she could never put into words.

"We aren't out of the woods yet!" Qrow shouted "We need to find a Bullhead, or else were swimming back."

That didn't seem likely to Ruby, after what happen to theirs, but there might be one if they…

"There's one!" Nora shouted and Ruby just could help but think of their luck now. Then she realized it might not be that at all, it may have been literal divine intervention.

"Loki did you…" She turned to look for the sorcerer, but he and his brother, were not where to be found.

"Loki…" She whispered "Thor?"

* * *

Thor hovered in the air as he watched the pillar of ice rose up an out. Loki would see to their escape, he mentioned getting them a bullhead before they'd left Salem's chamber, and all Thor could think was this was literally a Deus Ex Machina, a machine from a god to save them.

But now that they were safe, he could see to the issue at hand. He and Loki had reached some of the power from the broken relics, but Salem had as well, and now the entire terrain and every creature was of one mind. She may of controled them before, but now they were her, with her mind, will and drive beyond the more simple animalistic instincts.

Even the sky and ground fought against him now, and his powers were already waning.

"Poor little Odinson." A voice came from behind him. Spinning in the air he saw a harpy like Grimm with Salem's body. "Once the power fades in you again, I'll consume it, then your brother, then I will have my world."

He fried the Grimm with a lightning bolt, he needed to think of something to kill this whole thing at once.

More Grimm, all bearing some resemblance to Salem started to swarm him, and he killed them all with ease, but they were endless in here.

He flew to the ground with great speed and slammed into it the force of a small atomic bomb.

But as the smoke cleared, the ground came to life and tried to ensnare him. He broke free like they were tissue paper.

But they didn't need to beat him, just delay him. His transformation only lasted a few minutes last time, and if the power had been divided equally among the three, even accounting for the power he already had, this wasn't going to last long.

Salem had alluded to a way to make the power come and go at will, but as he didn't know how to do that, it didn't do him any good. However, if she knew the secrets, then her power wouldn't go anywhere while he just got weaker.

He'd lost precious time getting the others out, had he struck with the full power at the moment of the transformation, he could of atomized the whole creature, but now his strength was fading with each passing second. He had to try doing something to remove the threat once and for all.

He looked to the "Sky", an idea struck him as the more tentacles wrapped around his legs.

Spinning his hammer, he flew straight up with enough force to tear the tentacles to shreds. He slammed into the ceiling and braced his shoulders and pressed his hands against it and started to fly straight up.

He had no idea if this was working, given it was almost a whole different world in here, but he had the strong sense that it was.

"What are you doing little god? Are you fading already?" Salem face formed out of the inside of the shell. "Trying to escape and can't quite punch through anymore, how sad, just minutes ago breaking the shell was like crushing a can to you."

He just smiled at her.

* * *

Yang clutched her shoulder as the Bullhead took of, Thor and Loki nowhere to be seen. Despite their good luck, something didn't feel right, for one why hadn't the Grimm submerged itself after the attack? That's where it had spent all its time since…well she couldn't even guess to how old it was.

But as the Bullhead pulled away for the flight back to Atlas, something became clear to her and she was sure the others. The travel time from here to Atlas was just over an hour. Even at top speed for a Bullhead, this Grimm had been six hours away when they had deployed. It was much closer to the city than before.

Once they were high enough and far enough away, she could see the wake it was making in the water. It was heading to Atlas. Whether it was doing so out of revenge or some long-term plan she couldn't guess, but Atlas had just lost a huge amount of military assets, they wouldn't be able to handle an attack from this thing, and running…. well that wouldn't be much help either, like in Mistral, there wasn't a means to evacuate that many people that quickly.

It was down to Thor now, to kill it, or at least stop it. No sooner she thought this than wild electric currents danced across the shell of the Grimm.

Without thinking, he left hand drifted to her stomach, to gently cradle it.

* * *

Winter wanted to grieve, she wanted time alone with her thoughts and feelings. But fate didn't seem to have that in place for her. No sooner than she had told her parents about her sister than an alarm went up and all military personnel were called into duty, and she answered the call.

And here she was, facing down the damn thing that had not only killed countless soldiers and hunters and cost untold billions to the military, but had taken her sister from her. This thing, which she doubted even had any real thoughts of its own, was coming to finish them off, and even as far away as it was, she could just make it out on the ocean. It even had a storm roaring over it, with thick black clouds.

It was almost like watching death itself march on the city. The Atlas military was expected to hold it off as long as they could while the citizen, aka the super-rich, could escape.

She hated the idea of the rich and powerful leaving the working classes behind, but she wanted a chance to kill some Grimm. She knew there was no chance of killing the one that took her sister from her, but she'd kill as many as she could.

She found some comfort, even if it was a bit sour, that her mother, father and brother would live. She wasn't as close to them as she had been with Weiss, and apart from her Grandfather, who was long in his grave, her sister was the only blood relative she had truly felt close with.

But her brother…he made her furious. He'd taken his own sweet time when she said she had important news, bad news about Weiss, and had barely reacted when he'd been told. She knew everyone grieved in their own way, but the little prick didn't seem to care.

Her father was stoic as ever, but his eye's hurt, and he was making a great effort not to show emotions, but it did make her feel better know he did care at least a little.

Her mother though, had gone to pieces. She was an inconsolable mess and had needed to be sedated. It was the first genuine outpour of emotions she'd seen from her in years.

She stood there, along with the remains of the Atlas military, waiting for the hell they knew that thing would bring.

Her scroll hummed in her pocket and she didn't think she could bear to talk to anyone. But she pulled it out and looked at the name. Her heart near stopped.

"Weiss." She muttered, and didn't know what to do, to ignore it or answer.

Before she could answer it, it when to voice mail.

"Winter?" It was her sister's voice, and she couldn't believe it, she was in shock. "It's your sister, I hope you're alright, I can't explain now-"

Winter picked up the call "Weiss, oh my god! I thought you were dead!"

"Winter, I'll try to explain later, but the Grimm."

"We know, we're getting ready for it, where are you?"

"On a Bullhead back, we'll be there in ten minutes, please make sure we aren't shot down."

"I'll make sure" she the paused "Weiss?".

"Yes?"

"I love you."

"I love you too." She replied. "I'll talk to you soon."

They ended the call and Winter leaned against the wall, all the strength leaving her knees. Tears running down her face, but a smile creasing it.

But she looked out to the sea and reality came crashing down, that thing was still coming. But her desire for revenge had faded like fog in the sun, now all she was thinking of was how to save her sister and the rest of her family.

As she thought on this matter, the storm over the Grimm seemed to get worse. The lighting was becoming so violent that the clouds were almost constantly filled with the bolts.

It was then she started to notice something, something she wasn't sure she believed she saw and the idea of it sent her mind reeling. The Grimm was rising out of the water, she looked at the water in the bay to see if it was being affected and sure enough it was, confirming the essential reality of the event.

She had no clue if this was good or bad, but it was certainly a sight to behold.

* * *

"Give it up godling." Her voice rang around him and pillars of the bone and stone pummeled his body and flying Grimm showered him with all manner of attacks, but he endured it all, his godly body would withstand whatever punishment they could shower him with…for now. "You think you'll what? Throw us into space? Cast us into the Sun? You time is short and you've yet to break the Stratosphere."

"At the very least a fall from this height will hurt you." He muttered. He knew that wasn't enough, that wouldn't kill her once and for all, just damage the body. His plan had been to just remove the whole thing, like cutting out a cancer, but he wasn't sure that was possible now.

He needed to think of other possibilities. But what was there? He had to think of something, his power was waning and Salem was enduring. Where was his brother when he needed that mind. But he'd entrusted him with another task and he was on his own.

It was then he realized that he'd stopped moving. He hadn't felt it as while he'd built up the speed the stopping was all too noticeable. This was as far as he was going.

"Looks like the end of the road for you." The voice seemed to ring out from every direction.

Shifting the weight onto one arm, he took Mjolnir in his hand, grabbed the leather strap and started to spin it.

"Calling a little storm? If that's how you choose to waste your final moments." The voice echoed and he was assaulted but more bone spears and blast of an energy type he'd yet to see from the Grimm.

The weight was getting greater to carry, his muscles ached and the strain was even making blood vessels pop around his scars. This was his last effort, one thing that he's never even wanted to consider, for the damage it could do to the world, but this was an all or nothing situation. He knew if he managed this, he wouldn't see any of them again, his friends, his brother…Yang.

"Oh a nice light show you have there with that hammer." She said.

He whispered to himself one final prayer.

* * *

"That has to be Thor." Ruby said as the Giant Grimm was lifted from the ocean and into the air. It was only now she grasped the size of it, and the grotesques appearance it had. It looked mutated and just looking at it unnerved her.

As it drifted up she noticed it didn't go straight up, it was floating at an angle, listing to towards the shore, in way that even if it made landfall would be outside the city. Was he going to drop it on land? Maybe at that size it wouldn't be able to support its own weight and would crush itself.

But as it went up and up, it seemed more like Thor was just going to fly the thing into space.

But then it stopped and just hovered. "What's he doing?"

They all watched from the Bullhead as the just stayed in the air, with sea water running off it in such quantities that it was like rain.

Then a flash erupted from the Grimm, so bright they had to cover their eye's, but Ruby just managed to make out what looked like a beam of energy blowing the Grimm into pieces. The head, part of the torso, two legs and an clawed remained in one piece and those piece flew towards the land, lighting arcing off it, while the rest of it was either vaporized or scattered like rubble.

Ruby was expecting a blast wave to rock the Bullhead, but it never did, that blast, whatever it was had been directed in one direction.

The remains of the Grimm crashed into a mountainside and crumpled and broke on impact, making it even less recognizable than before.

"But Thor…was he in there?" She muttered.

All she heard in the otherwise totally silent cabin was her sister muttering his name "Thor."

* * *

Thor was floating in darkness, aware of his surrounding but not caring. He'd been here before, in an endless walking dream. He never got anywhere, and he was too tired to try now.

But the light, which had once been so far away, now was close enough shine through his closed eyelid. He opened his eye and saw what it was, after all this time. It was just a normal pedestal in terms of shape, but looked like it was solid light. He reached out and touch it.

And an old, familiar, and comforting voice echoed out.

"My son." The voice Odin rang out in the void.

"Father." Thor said weakly "I was wondering when I'd hear from you." His mind wandered back to what Salem said "Was the witch telling the truth? Was the relic true in what it showed me."

"True enough my son, but even pure truth can be manipulated to achieve ends."

"So it didn't happen." He said, with hope.

"No my son Ragnorok came and you and your brother are all that is left of our people."

Thor went silent for a moment "So this wasn't a test of us then, we are just the survivors."

"And why are the two mutually exclusive?" His father's voice answered "You and your brother, more him than you, but still you both, never appreciated a mortals life, it's fragility, the shortness of it, how cruel and wonderful it can be."

"So…was I worthy?"

"You were never unworthy my son." His voice said in a tone that was far more gentle than his typical one "But if you could just wave your magic hammer and reclaim you godhood, the lesson would lose its impact."

"Then why?"

"You managed to achieve some moments of your real power, only through great personal sacrifice, and only in fleeting moments, make no mistake, you will never again reclaim you powers in this mortal like, the keys are all gone now."

"Salem."

"Was a fool of a witch who understood as much of gods as a flea does of the workings of the sun."

"So…why come to me now?"

"You are experiencing the greatest truth of mortal life, death."

"I'm dead?"

"Dying, you may yet live, but you are close."

"Father…will I see you again? Will out people return."

"There are some things even I don't know my son, but out time is short, and I sense someone else wishes to talk to you."

"Father…." Thor muttered and felt a sensation pulling on his arm, his real one, and he suddenly felt cold…and wet.

He felt like he was rocking on a boat, and all of a sudden, his eye burst open and he was hacking up water, and someone was pulling him onto…something.

"Father?"

"Not quite." He recognized his brother's voice.

"Loki." He sighed. For a while all he could see was the sky, but then looking around, he was he was on an emergency raft, his brother pulling him in. It's bright orange color seemed odd after the constant red and blacks he'd been seeing for the past few days.

He tried to help pull himself in, but he realized his artificial arm and leg were gone.

* * *

"You are heavier than you look, which is saying something." Loki huffed as they were safely in.

Loki looked at his brother and felt a sense of relief. "Here, take some." He produced a bottle and Thor drank it without question. After a few swings, he looked confused.

"Where did you get Asgardian mead?"

"I used a bit of the magic I reclaimed to make it." He said shrugging.

"Good use of it." He said taking another swig, and if it were anyone else other than Thor, Loki would thought he was being sarcastic.

"You did a number on the Grimm." He pointed to the black and white pile on Grim remains on the side of the mountain, they could see from the ocean, smoke rising from it as lighting still arced on the body.

"That was the idea." Thor said trying to sit up, wincing in pain as he did so. "So why the deception? Why did you trick us?"

"She knew we were there, she could feel the faint power in you and in my spear. Not exact locations, but we'd never of been able to sneak up on her."

"How'd you find this out?" Thor said, and Loki noticed him wince a little again.

"She tried to come to me in a dream, and get me to turn on you all. I must say I was tempted."

Thor just nodded an lay back on the rim of the inflated raft.

"We've got some work to do to get back to shore, the current will drift us back sooner or later, but I don't want to stay out here all day and half the night waiting for the tide to bring us in." He handed Thor a paddle, but he refused to take it.

"I'm not doing that Loki." He said, just staring as the sky.

"I get you just saved a Kingdom, maybe the world, but the grunt work has to be done too."

"I mean I can't." He said.

"You still more useful than most men with two arms and legs now row." He gestured with the paddle at his brother to emphasize his point, but it had no affect.

"No, you don't understand." He said smiling, and coughing a bit. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and took another swig of mead. There was a smear of red on the back of his hand.

"Thor…"

"I'm not going to make it back to shore." He said "Something…something's burst inside me." He coughed again, more blood this time. "I pushed myself to far this time for this mortal body."

"Please." Loki said "You aren't a doctor…." He realized what he'd just said, his brother was for all intents and purposes a doctor, the mind of the man he inhabited in first time as a mortal, he retained that knowledge. He'd know better than almost anyone they knew personally. "Your Aura…"

"It's gone, I burned it all."

Loki wasn't sure what else to say; the shocking reality of mortality was looking him in the face. "Well hurry up with it, then your hammer will come flying in and revive you, then we won't have to paddle all the way back-"

"I saw father." Thor cut him off. "I was told all the keys to that power are gone, this is it brother."

This wasn't right, it seemed wrong to Loki, which was saying something. For all the times they had fought, even to the near death. Maybe his brother just need the motivation to fight on till they got to help or help arrived.

"You're going to be a father you know." Loki was surprised at the tinge of guilt he felt over not keeping his promise to Yang, but Thor needed a boost.

"I suspected." He said taking another swig of mead.

"You did?"

"All the knowledge of a doctor combined with all the time we lived, I suspected yes."

"Damn it." He muttered, if he already knew, when he wasn't going to get any boost from that.

"Look after them will you?" Thor said, looking at him.

"I won't have to, you aren't dying, you're too stubborn."

"Loki, just say you will, a final request."

"Alright!" He said running his hands through his black hair "If anything ever happens to you, then I'll look after Yang and the child."

"Good." He said sighing "And one more thing."

"You are getting greedy with these last requests you know." Loki said, but listened, wanting him to keep talking.

"Try to find someone." He said "To make you happy, it's a lonely thing to not know love."

"Oh for the love of father." Loki muttered. Thor held out the mead and took and took a long knock, before handing it back to Thor.

"Weiss likes you, and you like her."

"So?" He didn't deny it, but still his brother's interest in his personal life was starting to irritate him.

"If you give it a go with her, don't' hurt her, or try not to."

"You know, you are getting pretty demanding, are you sure your dying? Or are you just trying to get me to talk about our feelings."

Thor just shrugged and took another swig. "I'm sorry." He finally said.

"For what?"

"For making you feel inferior, for hurting you in the ways I did." Thor muttered, his voice sounding weak.

"And I'm sorry, you know, for the usurpation, the invasion, the backstabbing." Loki said.

"So are we all reconciled now?" Thor said smiling offering him the bottle.

"As close as will ever get." Loki said took it, took another swig and handed it back. "We have to get to it if we want to get to land." Loki said as he started to paddle.

"Loki…" Thor said, weaker than before but Loki ignored him.

"Thor we'll be fine we just…" His voice trailed off as he heard the telltale sound of an engine. He scanned the sky and saw a Bullhead patrolling the sky's. "Ha, I told you we'd be fine." Loki said triumphantly, and pulled out a flare from the raft survival kit and ignited it and started waving it to get the attention of the pilot.

"Yang…" Thor muttered.

"It porably is her, and all rest of those misfits." Loki said "They would be the closest in the Bullhead I got for them." The Bullhead started heading towards them and one he was sure they were heading towards them and could clearly see the orange raft, he tossed the flare into the ocean. "Looks like you were being overly dramatic brother." He said smiling. Thor didn't respond. "Thor?" He started to turn and wondered if he fallen asleep with his exhaustion and the alcohol consumption.

His heart stopped. Thor was propped up against the edge of the raft, still clutching the mead. But his eye was blank and his skin was pale.

"Brother!" he knelt down and started to shake him, and feel for a pulse…nothing. "Thor!" he shouted, but his brother's one just stared out at nothing.

* * *

"I see them!" Ruby shouted, although she didn't need to. Yang had seen the flare, and even from this distance, the bright red cloak, the one Ruby gave Thor, stuck out on the steel grey ocean. The orange life raft also helped them be spotted.

"We'll have to get them out quick" Qrow call over the radio "Thor might have done a number on that thing, the reports are coming that Grimm are still spawning from it, pretty nasty ones too."

"Is Atlas sending anything to deal with them?" Weiss asked.

"Doesn't look like it, seems like the higher-ups want to play it defensively now."

Yang didn't care much, anything that survived was going to be hurt and this was a much more manageable conflict. They hadn't won yet, but it seemed like the final stages, and they were all alive. This was the best possible outcome they could of hoped for.

She gently brushed her stomach and thought about what she was about to tell Thor. Loki knew, but he'd kept quiet. She smiled thinking of his response, and the other's. Blake's might be a bit uncomfortable, but that would pass.

As they got closer, Loki threw the flare he was waving and turned to his brother. Thor looked rough even from here, his black prosthetic were gone and she could make out blood stains as they got closer.

But something was wrong, as they got closer Loki's actions were…jarring he looked like he was shaking Thor and her heart started to pump quicker. Was he seriously hurt?

Then Loki did something just as they got close enough to open the doors to let them in. He took off her own jacket and lay it over his brother. Not like how you'd do it to keep someone warm, but to cover up…

"Qrow! Hurry up!" She shouted.

Ruby was yelling as well, and Nora and even Jaune had joined in. Qrow, pulled the bullhead up and spun it around allowing them to open the cargo door to let them get to them.

"No." Was all she said as she ran down the ramp to the raft, while other's tried to keep this as normal as possible, Sun and Blake attaching the raft to cable to pull it up, but Yang didn't bother waiting for it to be fully loaded. She jumped onto it and pulled Loki's coat off him.

Loki just sat on the edge of the raft, looking at his feet, not bothering to say anything.

He was so pale when she got a look at him, white. His skin was cold to the touch, and she put her head to his chest to listen for his heart. Nothing.

"I'm sorry." Loki said, not looking at anyone. "He knew, he told me."

"No." she whimpered, tearing welling up in her eyes, she hadn't felt like this since…Summer. "No." she said again, she voice cracking even more, even as Qrow lifted off and the cargo bay door closed. She started to look around "Where's his hammer?"

"Yang." Loki said to her, his face miserable.

"It can make him better, it did it before, where is it? I saw he had it in there, we've got to get it for him."

"Yang…it'll do no good." Loki said solemnly.

"YOU DON'T KNOW THAT!" She shouted at the top of her voice, eye's flaring red as she grabbed Loki by his shirt and slammed him into the wall of Bullhead.

"Yang!" Ruby shouted and she turned to see her little sister, silver eyes full of tears, sorrow now mixed with fear.

"Ruby." She whimpered and let go of Loki and walked over to her sister and hugged her, both now sobbing. The others came in putting hands on their shoulders, and eventually joining in the embrace. "This can't be real." Yang muttered into her sister's hair.

The only one on the outside was Loki and Qrow, and while Qrow piloted the Bullhead, Loki wondered back to this brother's body's.

Yang could hear him muttered two words.

"Goodbye, brother."


	24. Finale

**AN: Last chapter, unless I publish the epilogue, which I'm not sure if I will. I'll see if there is enough demand for.**

 **I plan to re-write this at some point, but to what capacity I'm not sure, although this version will stay up.**

 **It's been fun, and I want to thank everyone who followed, faved and reviewed, even if some of you gave me some harsh reviews.**

 **I've learned some writing this and that's something, and it was fun all things considered.**

* * *

Winter was starting to panic, Weiss was late, and whatever the hell had happened to the Grimm had the higher-ups just questioning what the current situation was. Whatever had happened to it had reduced its threat level by about 98%, but the Grimm horde amassing to the east wasn't anything to sneer at either. It was still three times larger than what had attacked Mistral and six time larger than the one at Vale.

It was still going to be hard, but now the odds were manageable with the Kingdoms defenses and the remains of the attack force. But what had happened? Everyone in the sit could see it, and the flash of light destroyed most of it, it was as if the gods themselves had struck it down.

But the site of a bullhead flying down to the landing pad caused her to throw all thoughts aside and rush forward to it. The first sight she saw made her heart drop, a body being wheeled out on a gurney, covered in red cloak. But she shook the thought from her mind, they were far too big to be her sister, though she recognized her sister's friends.

Her sister walked off the bullhead, looking incurably despondent. That was one of her friends, that had been carried away, and while she didn't want sound callus, that was part war. In that operation, Winter had lost people she'd known for years, some of them were good friends.

"Weiss." She said hugging her "I so glad your back."

"Winter…Thor." She said into her chest.

"I know it hurts, and I'm going to say will get easier, but that is war."

"Okay, come on." She heard an all too familiar slurred voice come from the Bullhead. Qrow was shoving a prisoner out.

"When do you pick him up?" She asked her sister.

"Who?" Wiess asked before responding "Both were inside that thing, he worked for Salem and Qrow was captured."

"Why?"

"He…said he knew out brother." Weiss said "I wanted to know more."

"I'll interrogate him later." Winter said "But how did you survive?"

"Thor lead us inside, and me and Loki kept the tunnel from sealing by freezing them, we hunkered down inside…" Her eye's started to tear up.

"If you not ready to talk, don't, go be with your friends, I need to talk to the prisoner."

She hugged her sister again and went off after Qrow.

* * *

Whitley was nervous, but that was natural. He'd chosen the losing side, but so long as his role was left unknown, he'd be fine, he'd just have to play the game a bit longer.

Still, he was upset that Salem had failed, now he'd have to wait till his father died to get what he wanted. At least Weiss was out of the way, if only he had some more of that parasite, he could probably finish his father off, especially with Weiss and her boy toy gone.

Well, at least he was still the only heir and even if he hadn't killed his father, he was still in much poorer health than before.

A knock at the door broke his thought as he said "Come in."

Three Atlas solider marched in, followed by his father who was supported by a cane.

"Father…what is it?"

"These men have some questions for you son."

* * *

 **Tyrian interrogation, Three hours earlier.**

"You can't be serious." Qrow muttered. He'd never thought much of Schnee's as a whole, especially the patriarch. But this son was something else.

"Why would you want the old man out of the way? All that would do is make Ironwoods resources stronger."

"Yes, and that was Queen's point, to provoke an attack, a strong one and crush it. To kill your hope." The unhinged Faunus said.

"So what the hell would he get out of it?"

"The family company, at least that what we told him, he probably would have died before then to be honest."

"These are grave accusations." Winter cut in "Do you have proof?"

"Check his scroll, or mine, I've got out correspondence and meetings on file." He said smirking.

"Why tell us?" Qrow asked.

"I hate the Schnee's, and if I can't kill one, I can at least destroy the life one and hurt the rest with this." He said still smirking.

"I knew that little bastard was ambitious…but this…" Winter muttered.

"You want to arrest him or should I?" Qrow asked "Family matters aside, this is high treason at least."

"Neither of us will go, I'll contact my superior officer, and he'll handle it."

* * *

"Father." Whitely whimpered, near tears. He was caught. That word echoed in his head. Caught. Caught. Caught! "Surely you don't…"

"They have proof boy." His father seethed "You're lucky I don't have you killed, these men will take you to prison where you'll await trial. You'll receive no help from the family attorney's or aid in legal fees."

"Father!" He went to his knee, tears and snot running down his face.

"Get this…thing out of my sight." He spate and the MP grabbed him and cuffed him and dragged him out.

"Please!" Whitely cried "You can't send me to prison!"

His father ignored everything he shouted and never bothered to look at him again.

* * *

Loki sat with his brother. His brother's body he had to remind himself. He was given the responsibility for funeral arrangements and he had no clue what to do. He knew the Asgardian traditions fine, but they were expensive, even with the money he saved over the years, he'd never be able to afford the proper ceremony for a prince of Asgard.

But would he even want that? Thor wasn't one to stand on ceremony.

It dawned on him he'd done this to his brother before, and now appreciated what he'd put his family through. Only Thor wasn't faking it. He was alone now, and not just with his brother's body, but in this world. His power gone, his spear gone, and his brother…gone.

That child, Yang's and Thor's was his last link to his old life.

His mind wondered to the poor thing and how she'd had to be taken to a doctor. It was odd given how she seemed so tough and strong, but she was the most affected this aside from himself, and she had other concerns.

He supposed she'd tell the other's now. That made him more depressed, that she'd planned to have this be such a happy moment, now it was riddled with sorrow.

He'd gone so soft, he never used to care about such things.

There was still work to do however. Salem wasn't dead, she'd been badly defeated, her fortress destroyed and her power base broken. But the Grimm coming from the remains, those had to be dealt with. He heard the whispers, they were coming.

He wanted to fight, but his weapon was gone. He'd had one in storage here, he'd been going to retrieve it when Cinder had attacked him, and now it seemed like a cheap imitation of what he'd once had.

"Cinder" he muttered and he realized that she may have her power back, but he had a hard time caring.

He hadn't felt such despair in…he didn't know how long, but he had to find a way to move forward and function for the next few days.

An air siren started howling and he looked at his brother. "Sorry brother, but I have to go."

He stood up and left Thor alone in the cold hospital.

* * *

The rain started as Jaune got to the wall. He looked over the ledge to see a great black mass moving towards the city. He got chills of memories of Mistral at that sight. The region they were coming from was quite a way off, and if he could see it from here, there had to be a lot.

It disturbed him that even after most of the base being destroyed, and countless Grimm being killed, there were still that many. Other's had to be drawn in from the surrounding areas, but still, the sheer numbers of what was left after such a devastating loss…hope was hard to hold onto, especially with no gods coming to save them this time.

He felt cold, and not just from the rain. He looked around to see the Atlas military mounting heavy machine guns, mortars and a wide array of other weapons.

His own weapon…felt not up to the task. He knew if he could get in close, he'd been a functional warrior. But in a defensive position like this, with heavy artillery support, melee fighters like himself had to stand and wait until the Grimm got close to actually do anything.

The problem with that was once that happened, things were already bad, if it was at all possible, it was best the enemy be destroyed before it even reached the wall.

They'd be here, by night. He wondered which of the others would come. Yang and Ruby were near in complete shutdown, and the others were not taking their loss well.

He'd handled it…he didn't want to say better, because there was no right way to handle something like the loss of a friend, but with more of his composure he guessed.

Ruby…was taking this harder than he thought she would. Given how she'd managed to get back up after Pyrrha and Penny, she was much more despondent. She pulled herself up by her boots and got right down to business. Granted she'd had some time to deal with the loss then, this new one was only hours old. Then there might be the fact she'd finally passed the breaking strain in her ability to be strong for those around her. She'd done that for a while, shown strength while others, like himself, had become useless lumps and help get them back up on their feet. She may just not be able to do it. Given her age, at sixteen it was a wonder she'd done as much as she had.

The other's, well he didn't know. Yang was far more affected by the loss than anyone else. It made sense, given she wasn't just dating him, but had spent more time with him than any of the others, and a lot of that was just the two of them.

Loki however wasn't showing much emotion. He was worried he was up to something. He hadn't explained anything since they'd reunited with him, and if he'd really turned on them or not. Unfortunately, the only person who could verify it was gone.

He looked at the black sea of Grimm, scattered with lights from the eyes and marks, again reminding him on the attack on Mistral. This one didn't seem as organized, but the numbers were far greater, he couldn't even guess the numbers.

Jaune thought of everything he'd learned since he left Beacon and found himself getting mad. The God of light and Thor's father Odin, especially Odin from what he heard of him. They could have wiped these threats out with a mere thought, but let them struggle. What sort of god was that? Not one worth the breath a prayer cost. Thor… he was what a god should be, self-sacrificing, compassionate, helpful and willing to sacrifice himself for those he was supposed to protect.

And he was dead. If he was still out there, in some afterlife Jaune couldn't understand or comprehend, he hoped he'd help them. Maybe this rain was him telling them he was watching?

"Thor." He muttered. No sooner than he said that a lightning bolt crossed the sky, the biggest he'd ever seen, and it seemed to linger. He didn't know if that was an answer or just a coincidence, but he felt better thinking it was. "Tell everyone else…Pyrrha, Penny, Ruby's mom…Summer" He said to himself "Everyone else who we've lost…we miss them, and we're hoping they're watching out for us."

* * *

Blake couldn't stand seeing Yang like this, and she didn't want to leave her in this state. But they were needed at the walls. One final effort was needed, and if she was in a place to help…she would.

As it stood, herself, Sun, Jaune and Ren seemed like the only ones completely ready to go into combat. Weiss had seemed to be holding up better, but she got a call from her sister and had to leave.

Loki…was up in the air. He seemed composed, but she honestly didn't even know if they could trust him. He'd yet to explain what had happened after they'd been captured, although Weiss had made it clear he'd given them the means of escape.

Her and Sun were heading to the wall, with many other volunteer hunters as well and military personnel. This was a mass of Grimm larger than any seen before, but after everything…it felt mundane.

Sun was rubbing her shoulder and while she appreciated the gesture, she didn't really want him to touch her. But she let him because she thought he needed the contact.

She…liked Sun. A great deal in fact. But she just could shake Yang from her mind. She'd never been attracted to girls before her, and hadn't meet once since that she did. But Yang drew her in, and they'd been…intimate at Beacon. They never officially started dating, but when she'd meet up with Yang again, and she was involved with Thor, Sun was there. And she did like him, she thought she was even in love with him, but her feeling for Yang, especially now in her hour of need, had left her confused.

But she pushed these thoughts and issues to the back of her head. She'd have time to deal with these feeling s after the final battle.

* * *

Weiss couldn't believe it, yet at the same time could. Her own brother, a traitor, and an attempted murderer.

She sat with her father and sister in a study at the estate as the situation with her brother was explained. He'd always seemed…disconnected from his emotions, but this was almost crazy to think of what he did.

"With your brother…gone." Her father said "That leaves you two as heirs to everything this family has."

"You don't say?" Winter said, but her father ignored her.

"You two have been….resistant to the idea, and at this point, I've accepted it." He said "I doubt I'll live to raise another child and frankly, you two are…more qualified than I would of expected."

Weiss would have reacted more strongly if she wasn't still in shock at the idea even a god could die. As it was, she just looked at her father more sternly.

"I'm willing to reinstate both of you as heirs to the family business and all my personal wealth." He said, "If you are agreeable to it."

Weiss didn't say anything, but Winter did.

"Why?"

"I have no family other than your mother, and I'd hate to see this company leave the family." He said. "Despite everything…I respect he Schnee name, and your grandfather, and I want to see it continue in the bloodline."

Winter stayed silent for a moment before speaking "You can leave it all to Weiss." She said. "She's…more deserving of it."

Weiss was surprised, but didn't have the energy to really discuss the issue. Her father seemed to be of a similar mind and said "If you wish."

She stood up and walked out of the room. She had wanted to see her mother, but she was sleeping. It scared her to think both of her parents were in such poor health, her mother from years of alcohol abuses, and her father from her damn brother's attempt on his life. Death seemed to just hover over her life this past year. Three people she'd considered herself close to had died, and countless other's she didn't know. She and her friends had several close encounters and he father had nearly died as well.

And it looked like there was going to be one more day of death the Grimm horde heading towards the city.

Footstep behind her told her that her sister had followed her out of the room, it had to be Winter, the steps were too quick to be her father's, whose top speed right now was a slow shamble.

"Are you going to the wall?" Her sister said.

"You aren't going to try and stop me?" She turned around as she spoke.

"We both know how well that works." Winter said "But I think I have to, you…you're drained."

"I can still fight." Weiss said.

"Physically you are still capable, but emotionally and mentally, you're near dead on your feet."

Weiss didn't say anything, but her sister was right. She wanted to sleep, the idea of lying down in her own bed and just drifting off to sleep.

"I'm going to bed." She muttered "I'm going to be hindrance if I go to the wall like this." She muttered and started to walk off to get some rest. She just couldn't do it anymore, she just wanted to sleep.

Winter watched her sister go to her room and wanted to comfort her, but she really did need to sleep. A few hours rest might change her idea of joining the battle, but hopefully it would be over by then.

The Grimm that were coming were nothing like she'd ever personally seen. The closest was the "Wendo", but these Grimm all had human aspects in greater and lesser degrees according to the scouts. Some had a woman's head, or human-looking stylized hair on them. The disturbing thing was there was no variation in human appearances, like they all came from the same woman.

This had to be Salem, and she somehow had merged with her creatures and was making a final move after her loss. What her goal in Atlas was she didn't know, Weiss had told her the relics were destroyed, so there was nothing here to take.

The sheer numbers of Grimm was...beyond her imagination. The remains of the giant Grimm were melting and forming into new Grimm, of types she'd never seen.

Then there were the "wild Grimm" that were being attracted by this. They were attacking the City at random were easy enough to defeat, but they were still chipping away at defenses.

Had Ironwood still been in command, she didn't doubt he'd lead another assault on the Grimm. But a defensive position was better in her option, with artillery support and wall to fire from, they needed every advantage they could get.

Loki watched the black mass of Grimm approach from the wall. If he had to guess, it was two hours away. Military engineers were mining and trapping the area outside the city, but at best their traps would be a hindrance. They knew it, but anything to thin out the numbers.

* * *

Loki wondered if they had to worry about an attack from the sea. The Navy was severally depleted and if it were him attacking the city, and he had the ability to choose his forces, he'd go for a naval attack. There had to be water based Grimm lurking out in the bay.

He turned to look, to see if he could make out any shapes in the water, but the rain and low light made it virtually impossible to distinguish if something was there.

Just as he started to turn away, something in the bay denoted and water and Pieces of Grimm flew into the air.

"The bay is completed mined." A voice said from behind him.

He turned to see Winter, Weiss's older sister walking up behind him.

"That probably killed more than a few Grimm." He said.

"There is no way anything is going to be swimming upon us without being blown to pieces of hemorrhaging its brain from the shock wave."

"Unless of course, they are smart enough to disarm them." He said looking back out to the bay

"Not likely, these are stealth mines, you could be looking right at it in the water and not know it's there." She walked up next to him as she spoke.

"Expecting an invasion?"

"More a safeguard in case one of the other kingdoms, Mistral in particular, tried to invade us."

They stood in silence for a moment before Loki spoke again. "Where is your sister?"

Winter responded quickly "Back home, resting, she's on her last leg, if she doesn't get some time to recover she'd going to collapse." She said, then went silent for a few moments before speaking again. "I'm sorry about your brother."

Loki wasn't expecting a sharp pain in his chest at the mention of Thor, but pushed it down. "Don't be, it's how he'd have wanted to go, crippling the enemy."

"So, he's the one who did that then?" She said "How?"

"With the relics, but it was too much for him, I won't know till the autopsy is done, but he ruptured something from the strain, bleed out internally."

"Were he and Weiss close?" Winter asked.

"Not particularly, I think he got on her nerves sometimes to be honest, he is…was a very boisterous person." He said "But he cared about her, and she cared about him, I think they were about as close as two people so different could be."

"She's very upset, though your brother's passing isn't the only thing."

"What else?"

Winter was silent for a while but responded "I guess you'll hear about soon enough on the news." She sighed "Our brother was the one who poisoned our father, he was working with Salem, he's been arrested for High treason, and father is understandably upset."

"That is…unfortunate." He muttered.

"Weiss and Whitely were never close, the betrayal still have her upset, considering he planned on having us killed off as well."

Loki didn't saying anything for a while, then he started a new subject. "You believe the city will withstand the attack?"

Winter looked out to the horde and back to the engineers and defenses of the city. "Yes, their numbers are great, but this the most heavily fortified city in the world with the best defensive technology on the planet." She paused "And our army is the strongest in the world, even after everything that happened out there." She gestured at the sea "we still have a sizeable force."

"How long." He said.

"Not much longer now."

* * *

The hospital was almost deserted, at least the section she was in. But that made sense, the living didn't come down here often.

Yang knew there was one more battle brewing, but she was tired of fighting. She was ashamed of it, but she was just couldn't do it now, the pain was to close.

Ruby had disappeared and she had an idea that she was heading to the defensive line. That was the thing about Ruby, she rebound from shock way quicker than anyone else she knew, and in many ways, she wished she was more like her little sister.

She made a turn in the hall and soon found what she was looking for.

"Thor." She muttered and the tears started to flow again. She didn't know why she'd come here, but in some vague way she thought there was something she could do, but seeing him lying on the gurney, pale and unmoving. "This isn't right." She walked over and leaned on the gurney.

Loki said he knew, but she wanted to tell him, to see his face. Now it was all over, and now…what? She hadn't felt this drained in her life, physically, mentally, emotionally.

She wanted to just sleep and let the pain go away. But she was afraid to sleep, another dream might come, they always seemed to before something big happened and she didn't think she could deal with another event of that scale.

But she needed to sleep, she hadn't had proper rest in days. But she didn't want to leave him here alone.

"Why did you have to leave me you son of a bitch." She whispered. Why did people keep leaving? Her mother, Summer, Blake and Ruby all left her alone. Granted her sister and Blake had come back, but it didn't mean the memory didn't still sting.

Now Thor had left two people behind.

* * *

Ruby walked to the wall where all the Hunters and military personnel were gathering. She was looking for Jaune, he'd mentioned going to the city defense. She'd hadn't planned on going originally, but after everything she didn't think she could just sit ideally by and let this happen without doing her part.

Scanning the wall, she saw the shaggy blonde head of her boyfriend, and a bit of her surprise the black hair of Loki.

They were both standing on the wall looking out as the Grimm approached. The first few opening salvos from heavy artillery had opened fired.

"Jaune!" She called and ran up behind him and Loki. Both turned to look at her, but Loki turned his attention back to the field while Jaune ran to meet her.

"Ruby!" He called and embraced her quickly before saying "I didn't think you were coming, are the other's coming?"

Ruby shook her head "I don't know." She said, and couldn't help but think how this felt like the fall of Beacon, where they'd all been separated, but this was more…she didn't know how to describe it, coincidental as they all tried to deal with everything in their own way.

"Have you managed to figure out your Silver eyes yet." Loki called over his shoulder.

"Ummm….maybe?" She really didn't know how they worked, but she thought she had an idea. Both times she had used them were under duress when someone she cared about was in danger.

"Well I hope you do." Loki said "They would be a valuable asset here."

More and more heavy artillery started firing and soon the Grimm started to step on land-mines. It didn't seem to stop them. Taking out Crescent Rose, she walked up to the wall and looked down the side. Large stakes of Silver-steel had been planted at the base, like at Mistral.

Gunfire started ringing out, and she leveled her own weapon and took aim. Her heart stopped for a moment, seeing Salem's face on the body of one of the Grimm. The shock faded as it was blown to pieces by an artillery shell.

Getting back into proper headspace she leveled her rifle and got ready to fire.

Before she squeezed the trigger, she heard Loki mutter something she was quite familiar with.

"Lo there do I seem my father."

* * *

Blake watched as the Grimm rushed towards the city. She never thought she'd be defending Atlas in her life. But here she was, shooting at the horde of Grimm.

The sheer brutality of the Atlas's military's efficiency was impressive, as much as she loathed to admit it. The mines were blowing holes in the ranks of the Grimm and the Artillery and heavy machine gun fire was ripping the weaker ones' to pieces.

Her own pistol did little against the larger Grimm, but this was something she knew was a shortcoming in her style. Her mind wandered to the pouch at her side. At close and mid-range that would help, but at this distance she wasn't going to be much good. She was going to have to accept that there wasn't any way for her to fight well at all ranges without altering her equipment and style drastically.

It wouldn't matter in a few moments, the Grimm despite the wall of fire being leveled at them were still advancing. They didn't look normal either, they had been fused with another entity but only half way and all sported human-like features to some degree.

As what may have been a mid-sized Nevermore weaved through the fire and headed straight towards her.

She reached into her bag and pulled out a throwing knife and tossed it at the Grimm. It impacted in its chest and stuck there. The Grimm didn't seem to or even noticed as it swooped over her and other's on the wall. "That wasn't supposed to happen. What I was expecting was..". As she thought this, the Grimm's chest exploded and she thought "That". She needed to work on the timer, but the blast was strong enough to down the Grimm. She didn't know if it was dead or not because Atlas solider fell on it with rifle fire to finish it off.

These throwing knives held high-end dust explosives, more or less making them grenades, only with the ability to stick it to a target. A hard-hitting weapon that didn't compromise her fighting style, she was actually quite proud of herself in the innovation.

She threw another as a Wendo tried to leap the wall.

She kind of wished Thor could see she'd addressed the problems she was having in her combat style.

She pushed the thoughts out of her mind. This was war, and if she let her mind wander, she'd die.

More Grimm were reaching the wall and starting to scale it, if nor outright go over it.

She watched as Atlas solider was cut in half by a Deathstalker, and his comrades ran in, firing at it while one of them tried to pull him away.

They were all crushed under the claws of the thing. This was a side of the Atlas solider she never saw before. In her life they only guarded dust shipments, here they were defending their home and each other.

The Deathstalker moved towards her, and she pulled out three more knives and threw them into its mouth. The detonation hurt it, but didn't kill it. Given its size, she wasn't surprised. It was hurt though and now under fire from several directions.

Soon enough it died under the pressure and she moved back to the edge of the wall to see the progression of the fight.

It was…going far better than she would have expected. Grimm were being torn to pieces by the Atlas military. Air support was raining fire down on the Grimm in addition to stationary artillery and even the remnants of the Navy were firing on them.

This was going to be over soon, and it felt…almost anti-climatic.

* * *

Yang looked at the boat or ship, or whatever it was called. Loki had built it for this purpose. It was wood and absolutely ancient in design, it had a sail of wool and everything. It was a hundred feet long and half that in width at it's widest point.

It stood on a giant pyre on a beach several miles from Atlas, and had been loaded with weapons and fire dust. Loki had spent all the money he had to have this put together and Yang was furious with him, He hadn't asked her or anyone else about this. She knew he was Thor's brother, but he was important to them too.

She didn't know how he'd afforded this, but didn't care to ask.

On the deck of the ship, Thor's body was laid out on slab, he was dressed in fine clothes that looked ancient in design. His arm and leg had silver limbs replacement, his hands clasping a replica of his hammer over his chest. His leather eyepatch had been replaced with a silk one, and she couldn't help but feel that was disingenuous to how he'd been. The fine cloths, the glamor of what he was wearing wasn't in line with his personality.

She leaned in and kissed him on the forehead and moved off the ship so the others could have one last look at him.

There weren't many people here. Team RWBY and JNPR were in attendance. Sun, Winter and her father and Uncle were here as well. And of course, Loki.

It seemed wrong, that so few people knew what he'd done for them. It may be known one day, but it didn't seem right that he was getting such a small send-off.

She hadn't cried today, which was odd. She just couldn't, like she was too tired for even that. As Loki walked off the ship he was the last to leave.

There were lines of torches burning in the sand, one for each person in attendance. Loki picked up the first and everyone followed suit. In complete silence, they all threw them into the pyre.

In moments the flames were consuming the ship, and the fire dust started to ignite. The heat was unbelievable and it was so bright she almost couldn't look at it.

"How are you?" Loki's voice came from behind her, but she didn't' look away from the pyre.

"How do you think?" She snapped.

"Have you told any of them?" He said instead of responding to her attitude.

"No." She hissed. She knew she was just being mad at him for the sake of being mad, it felt good to have a focus for her rage, and she knew it wasn't even remotely fair, but she couldn't help it.

He put his hand on her shoulder and said, "Watch this part."

Scowling she looked at the pyre. Suddenly the fire appeared to turn gold and what looked like giant firefly's started to float up into the sky.

"What the…" The orbs of light soon started to engulf the entire pyre and rise into the sky like giant sparks, but they didn't dissipate, but just kept rising up and up. She didn't turn to look at Loki, but asked "What did you do?"

"Nothing." He said "When an Asgardian soul moves on, the body turns to energy."

Yang looked around quickly and saw that everyone else's reactions were similar to her own. The energy was still rising in a massive pillar of light, with the tiny orbs breaking off and floating away. They shone like gold and moved like firefly's. It was beautiful and she felt tears running down her face, but she felt…hope in her chest.

As she continued to watch, the energy floated down from the pyre and washed over them all. Qrow and Winter backed up as if afraid of being burned, but as it washed over them, Yang felt pleasantly warm, and for a moment, she thought she felt a hand cupping her face and another on her stomach.

It was over to soon, and the light eventually rose into the sky as the sun went down.

* * *

Ruby didn't know that it was possible to feel so happy and sad at the same time. Yang had told her about the baby, and the idea of being an Aunt was incredibly exciting. But the same time the kid would grow up without one of its parents. She knew what that was like, but this child would never know it's father.

Her father was stressing out, but was far from mad. Nora was excited, Weiss tried to hide her smile but didn't do it so well.

Her Uncle seemed like he wanted to be upset, but even he couldn't suppress the warmth he felt having something like this come along after so many dark days.

The symbolism wasn't lost on Ruby, with everything coming to one end, new life starting from this was almost intoxicating to the emotions. But not everyone seemed thrilled by this.

Jaune looked a little distracted, like this had caused him to start thinking of something that was weighing on his mind. Loki had known before anyone else so his reaction was mild, but Ruby was a little mad that Loki had been the one Yang had spoken to about it instead of her, her own sister. Well, she understood why once it was explained, and while she hated to admit it, Yang was probably right she might of accidentally let it slip out.

Sun and Blake had reacted in what she thought was the weirdest way. They had moved off to the side of the room and were talking pretty intently. That was a curious thing, but she didn't want to eavesdrop. Well, that wasn't true, she did, but she thought it would be better to leave them alone.

The future seemed brighter than it had in a long time. As sad as she was over everything that had happened, she felt that healing was starting. There was work to do to rebuild everything, and to honor the dead.

Weiss was given some responsibilities of her family companies, namely with its public image. Weiss thought of it as the first steps to fixing their family name. One of her projects was helping the kingdoms after the year of turmoil, and she had plans for memorials in each of cities that had suffered.

She wondered where her future was in all this. She still wanted to a huntress, but if Loki was right and the source of the Grimm was that crab Grimm, then work was going to become thin in that field. The White Fang was crippled as well, so she guessed Bandits…like Yang's mom would probably make up the bulk of hunter work in the future.

She could do other things, and she found herself surprisingly okay with the idea. She'd lived out the dream she'd had since she was a child, she'd been a hero who helped save the world.

Maybe she'd start a family, not right away, but in a few years when she was older. Yang was already there, but that was a less than ideal situation. Growing up in a largely single parent home most of her life, she'd seen how hard it was. But Yang would have help, unlike their dad, she didn't have a broken team, plus she had their dad and Uncle Qrow. She might have a tough go of it, but she'd have support.

Being an Aunt would be…well she was excited. She wondered if Loki thought the same thing. He was weird about his feelings, he hid everything about himself so well, she was never sure if she was seeing a genuine face of his, or a façade.

That very uncertainty about him was part of the reason she, and she presumed the other's, had believed he'd turned on them so easily. Had it been anyone else she'd be angry with herself for believing one of her…she guessed friends, had turned on them. But that was what Loki was good at, tricking people.

He and Weiss were, well she didn't know if they were together, although that's were things had been heading before his trick, she wasn't sure Weiss would forgive the trickery, even with the explanation he'd given. As cold as she portrayed herself to be, she was actually really emotionally sensitive. She didn't make bonds easy, and those she had form she treated with a great deal of care.

She hoped Weiss didn't get herself hurt again, because along with her trouble forming bonds, there also came the odd duality of being very hurt when they were betrayed, and her desire to forgive and reconcile with those who may of hurt her.

She'd never blame Weiss, or anyone else, if someone hurt them, but some people definitely put themselves out there is situations where they might be hurt.

As she looked around the room, she knew that despite everything they had lost, since this whole thing started with…where ever it really started, they had made it out with far more of their teams intact. Some teams, even whole family had been destroyed in this conflict. It didn't make the pain of the losses they experienced any less hard, but given how bad everything could of gone, Ruby would consider them lucky. Not that she voiced this idea out loud, especially in front of Jaune or Yang.

Still, her father, uncle and sister were alright, her team was alright, her boyfriend and what was left of his team were alright.

She wanted to talk to Yang in private, but that probably wouldn't happen today, the excitement over the news had made a few of their friends not want to leave her alone. Nora was most energetic over the whole thing, but Weiss was quietly invested as well. Her father hadn't left her alone either.

She decided to enjoy the happy atmosphere while it lasted, because there was going to be a lot of work coming, both in their professional careers and personal lives.

* * *

 **Three Months Later**

Yang didn't know why, but being home didn't…feel like home anymore. She felt like a stranger in her own home and she had no clue why. The world had seemed to change radically to her in the past two years. It was like realizing you'd been looking through a single gun slit your whole life and hadn't noticed it. Then the wall came down and you saw a much wider view.

Beacon was opening again, though she didn't know who would be appointed to head the school. Goodwitch probably, but she wasn't sure if she would go back. She had other things to worry about, and besides, she'd seen more than many other hunters.

Ruby and Jaune were excited to go back, and she thought that was their attempt try and recapture some of what they had lost. Weiss had also made some mention of not going back, finally have some control of the family company, even in such a small capacity was the start of her dream.

Blake and Sun had headed back to Menagerie, they also didn't know if they were going back either. This time Blake had told everyone what she was doing, and Yang was happy that she'd done that this time. Blake seemed like she wanted to say something to her, but hadn't managed to get it out.

Ren and Nora had made it clear they were going back to school, and Yang thought they were trying to capture some more of the "normal" teen life as well, given what they had done through when they were younger, she didn't begrudge them wanting to get a little more out of it, even if they were legally adults now.

Loki…had floated off somewhere. She'd thought he would stick around, and he had…for the first three weeks. But then one day he disappeared without a trace. He'd been acting oddly the day before, almost like how an animal starts to behave oddly when a natural disaster is coming. Then he was gone.

He hadn't told anyone anything, at least as far as she knew. Maybe Weiss knew, but she didn't know that one way or another.

She wasn't going to worry, it was true she didn't know Loki all that well, no one did she was beginning to think, he wouldn't let them. But he 'd be back…sooner rather than later. The loss of his brother had cut him much deeper than he wanted anyone to know, but in this rare case for the trickster god, he wasn't hiding his emotions all that well.

Still, he'd been gone for a while now, and she wondered what in the world he was doing.

* * *

Loki walked in the "Impact Zone" where the remains of the giant Grimm his brother had destroyed had landed. Even with most of its body destroyed it had still altered the landscape, bringing the shoreline up to the base of the mountain it had hit. He could still feel the faint power of the relics in the air, and in the ground. Not enough to do anything other than make him feel like he'd had a large cup of coffee.

But he wasn't here for that, he was looking for something closer to home. He could feel it, in the power of the relics, as faint as it was, it was like an off note in a musical movement. It was weak, but he could follow it to a reasonable degree.

The area was surprisingly flat, but given all the remains of the Grimm had literal walked off, the area was largely void of anything of real substance.

He'd been searching the area for a few days now, even with his ability to faintly feel what he was looking for, it was still a huge search area.

Today was the day he was certain he'd find it. He'd already been searching for a few hours and he knew he was close.

He was walking with his eye's closes, trying to sense it out. But there was something else in the area. Someone was following him, but whoever it was, was probably looking for the same thing as him because they'd been around for days and done nothing to him.

Opening his eyes, he set off, his feet crunching in the thin layer of snow. After an hour or so of walking he spotted something partially buried in the snow. He approached it and brushed it off, and sure enough it was what he was looking for, finally.

The last book, it's Runes telling him it was the book of the present. The ultimate information broker, the movement of all things and people. Insider trading of the highest order, he was certain he could make plenty of use from it.

"Loki." A voice said from behind him.

He stood up and tucked the tome in his jacket. "Cinder, I see you've escaped the Atlas prison." He turned to face her.

"You're behind the times, I escaped months ago." She said, smiling "Around the time your brother killed that…thing, I got my powers back, it was easy then," She walked in an manner he could only describe as 'alluring', she was putting on her feminine wiles, she wanted something. She didn't walk directly at him either, but rather off to the side.

"Yes, I suspected that had happened." He said, clenching his dagger in his coat.

"You two really did it, you killed her." She said looking around at what Loki had come to see as a monument of Salem's defeat, even though the final nail in her coffin had actually be before the walls of Atlas, this was where her death had started.

"Yes, well the Sons of Odin are known for doing the extraordinary." He said before saying "What do you want?"

She looked at him and her smile faded "I want direction."

"The city is that way." He said pointing towards Atlas.

"You know what I mean." She hissed.

"Well I can't help you." He said "You lost your leader and your friends, if you call them that, are still in prison I presume." She nodded. "You are alone and three of the four kingdoms aren't likely to be safe for you at all. The best advice I can give is Vacuo or Menagerie, and frankly I can only see only one of these being even remotely possible for you."

"Will you come with me?" She said in such a pathetic voice Loki had a hard time hiding his surprise.

He raised an eyebrow at the request "Why? Forgive me but I don't see why I should."

"I need a new partner in crime." She said, regaining her composure "With my power and your knowledge, in Vacuo, such as it is, we could do quite well for ourselves."

Loki wasn't fooled for a moment. He saw in her eye what he was certain Yang has said she could see in his. The girl was alone and didn't want to be. Her entire social circle was either dead or in prison, leaving him the only person she had any sort of connection with, as poor as that was. They'd only spoken a handful of time and it was depressing that made him the person she knew best in the outside world.

"No." he said "You'll have to start with a completely new slate."

Her face scrunched in a frown "I could kill you." She said.

"Just like last time?" He said, tilting his head to the side. He knew full well that if they fought a second time, with her at full power, she'd kill him. He doubted she'd fall for the same trick twice, and frankly he wasn't sure he was capable of repeating the trick he'd pulled before. This was a bluff, but he was very good at those.

She seemed to calm down a bit but spoke again "There are three more Maiden's out there." She said "We could hunt them down, split their power, fifty-fifty."

"Can you take another Maiden's power?" He asked.

"I could have, before your brother killed Salem, but now…"

"Ahhh…" He saw "You need my magic, weak as it is now, to do this without your Queen." She didn't answer, but she didn't have to.

"I'm sorry, but again…no." He started to walk away. "I've decided to move away from all that, I suggest you do as well."

He heard her call from behind him "Without your power how are you!" she was near shouting "Who am I!"

He stopped and turned to look at her, and she really did look despondent. "You are Cinder, I suggest you to discover what that really means."

"Well who are you!" She was near panting, almost like a dog. "A god with no power!"

"Me?" He said smiling. "That's simple." He turned and walked away, after a moment he called back.

"I am…Loki!"

* * *

 **AN: Okay, so I'm certain some readers thought I would being Thor back, but I planned for his death from the start of the story.**

 **Now for the Epilogue, I'll post it if there's enough interest in it. It will tie into some other story idea's I have and I'm working on.**

 **I've also thought of doing a side project, that is a "Field guide" to the Grimm I made for the story. I would be my attempt to write as if in the manner of scientific observer, but in this world and with creatures of my own creation.**

 **Again, thanks for sticking around till now. I'm sure it was rough at time, my own skill are rather raw as a story teller. But if you made it this far, I guess I did something right.**

 **Thanks, and I'll see you soon.**


	25. Epilogue

**AN: Okay, here's the epilogue. I honestly don't like it. I just couldn't get it the way I wanted, and if I mess around with it to much, I'm certain I'll screw it up more.**

* * *

Epilogue

* * *

Eight Years Later

The world had continued on its way , as it always did, and how Loki had known it always would, it was the way of things. But still, this small island town seemed so…unchanged by the passage of time.

Patch was where his…family lived. No blood relatives, but that hardly mattered to him now. The house he'd arrived at was silent, that told him the two little lunatics weren't around. He trod up the walk and knocked on the door.

"Hold on." A familiar voice called from inside and after a couple moments Yang had answered the door. "Loki." She said smiling "Come on it."

He didn't say anything as he walked into the Xiao Long family home and they walked in to the kitchen.

"Where are the twins?" He asked looking at the pictures on the wall, noticing some spot where some had been taken down recently.

"They are playing in the woods, they'll be back before dinner, are you staying?"

"I'm afraid I can't, business to attend to in the city."

"Oh well, they'll be sad they missed you." She said, "Want anything to drink?"

"Water, please." He said taking a seat at the kitchen table.

"Sure thing." She got him a glass and he took a sip, before asking his first question "So how are the twins."

Yang sighed and sat at the table, but smiled none the less. "Amber is a little hell-raiser, she's a sweetheart but I swear she doesn't think before she acts."

"Sound think someone I know." Loki said smirking "Well, two people."

Yang smiled "Ash is quieter, but he's no angle himself." She smirked at him "I think he takes after his Uncle."

"How are they in school?"

"Ash…he's better in classes, but Amber is definitely more outgoing."

He nodded "How is everyone else?"

"Well…Ruby is…still Ruby, I mean she's in her mid-twenties but still acts like a teenager." She said, clearly a little exasperated with her sister "She's doing well, but I swear if Jaune wasn't in charge of their budget she'd spend it all on…well that's not important."

"Sounds about right." He muttered and took another sip from his water.

"Ren and Nora are expecting their first, so you might want to get them something."

"Oh dear…what a terrible stroke of luck for the human race." He said smiling.

"Shut up." She punched him in the arm, but went oddly silent after that.

They sat in silence for a few moments before Loki asked, "You and Blake not work out then?" He said, sipping his water.

"Notice the picture huh?" Yang said rubbing the back of her head.

"Indeed."

"We tried." She sighed "And we had a good few years, but…well we have different goals, she has her work with Faunus rights, and while I'd love to help her...for me it's more about being a mom, and she didn't seem so keen on that idea, at least right now." She sighed "Her and Sun are back together, I mean we're still friends, but dating is kind of hard when you've got two kids."

They were silent before he asked the question he really wanted answered "Have they been asking about him?"

She didn't answer at first, but got up, got a cup of coffee, sat down, took a sip and answered, "They're starting to."

"Not before?"

"Well, they sort of always thought that me and Blake were their parents, at least from a point they can remember. But school started, Blake left…the question came up."

"What do you tell them?" His voice was cool, and sounded almost disinterested. He always tried to make it feel like he didn't care if he got and answer or not, even now, it was just to much a part of him.

"What I can, or…what I think is appropriate." She sipped her coffee "How do I tell my kids their dad was a thunder god?"

"He's pretty famous, after Mistral and the report from Atlas that he's the one who crippled the Grimm race, I'm certain they know of him."

"Yeah, but you know how many people know the truth? Not many, and with him gone and your power...well, it wouldn't be an easy sell."

"What do they know?"

"He…was a hero, he saved all of us a few times, I knew him at school, that sort of thing."

"They're going to ask more specific questions once they are older." He said, then added "Or much sooner…"

"Oh, I know." She sighed and finished her coffee before she changed the subject. "But what has the trickster god been up to. What's going on with you up there in the Great 'Weiss' North?" she smirked at her own pun.

"You know as much as anyone else outside the family." He said, keeping his face calm as not to betray any thought.

"Oh come one." Her voice almost whined "I should know more than others, we're family, practically." His expression didn't change, and he could of swore he saw her smirk. "Unless what that one tabloid said was true…."

"Of course it isn't" He almost snapped. He knew which one she was talking about, a totally baseless accusation about Weiss.

"So you guys still going strong?" She said, smirking at him.

"Of course." Was all he said.

"Ahhh." She sighed "You just don't like to talk about your private life do you."

"I suggest you talk to Weiss if you want to know."

"Whatever." She said, trying to sound angry, but didn't quiet hide her smirk. "I still can't believe that buzzard of a father of hers tolerated you two being together."

"Well, I've…helped them regain a fair portion of what they lost."

"Yeah, people say your magic…you aren't, still are you?"

"No, that's gone, but I have my sources."

"So…why are you here in Vale, some business to help get the Schnee's back on top."

"Partially." He said, reaching into his coat "I wanted to give you this." He slid a picture from towards her and Yang picked it up, and her face told him everything he needed to know.

"How did you get this?" She muttered "We…no even could have been there to take this picture."

It was a picture of her and Thor, from some point on their journey to Mistral. He had his arm around her and looked like he was attempting to kiss her on the check. Yang for her part in the picture was playfully pushing him away. Both were smiling like they hadn't a care in the world.

"I may be a fallen god." Loki said standing up "But I still have my ways."

"Is this some sort of…magic?" She said, her eye's glassy.

"Only the magic of informants." He said "Some shutter bug from the town you helped took it after you stopped those Shriekers." Her face seemed to fall a little, clearly hoping for some magic. But her smiled soon returned and she stood up and hugged him.

"Thanks Loki."

"There is another thing I wanted to talk to you about." He said, pulling another item out of his coat and laid it on the table. It was a hardcover book. It took Yang a second to read the title because to her view it was upside down.

"Lord of Thunder: Our Savior?" she read and looked at Loki. "What's this?"

"I was wondering if you might know, but given your reaction I'd say not."

Yang picked up the book and read the back cover. "Our world has known and worshipped many gods, but could it be that one has walked among us? New archeological evidence combined with eye witness testimony and news coverage makes this seemingly fanciful idea seem all too real. Read of a long forgotten culture, their history and their deities. Come read how one of these forgotten gods seems to have descended from the heavens in our greatest hour of need to save humanity from our greatest threat. Come and read the history, fact, stories and lore of the god of Thunder. Read of the life of Thor."

Yang face was confused and slightly flushed with anger. Loki spoke "That will be hitting Mistral markets next month."

"Why? How?" She sputtered.

"I've read it." Loki said "It discusses recent archeological finds that match with what I would understand to Norse or Viking people." He said "Along with some depictions of the gods. This author is drawing conclusions from events in Mistral and Atlas. My brother's appearance at the bridge is the biggest piece of it, when he destroyed and entire army of Grimm and Whitefang soldiers with a massive lightning bolt."

"This is bad." Yang muttered. "What will I tell the twins?"

"Well." Loki said standing "It won't be here for another few months, that should give you some time, but I wanted to give you a heads up about it." He put his hand on her shoulder in an awkward attempt to comfort her.

After a slightly awkward silence, she grabbed his hand in recognition. "Thanks Loki." She said.

After a moment he let.

"Give the kids my love." He said and started towards the door.

"If you see Jaune or Ruby tell them their niece and nephew miss them." She said as he made his way down the walk.

He waved over his shoulder to indicate h heard her.

True to his nature, he hadn't told her the whole truth of why he was here. There was business to do and had wanted to give her the picture and let her know about the book, but there was more.

He'd had one the dreams again, for the first time in seven years the dreams had come back. Weiss hadn't experienced them…yet, but the next logical choice for someone to experience them after himself were his niece and nephew. But if they had been having issues, especially in relation to their heritage Yang would have brought it up, and even if she didn't he would of picked up on something being off.

His dream had involved and crater in the forever fall forest that was bubbling the black tar like substance the Grimm grew out of and Salem reformed in to and grew back to full strength.

Grimm in general had become fairly rare, with the Beacon and the other academy's having shifted focus to more traditional military based educations than the heavy focus they'd had on Grimm. They still learned how to fight them, but the job demand for huntsman and huntresses had shifted and they had to change with the times.

But if Salem wasn't dead…he had to know. He knew the dreams weren't necessarily literal. It could mean just another threat of some unknown source, or perhaps an unusually large Grimm or pack of them was going to attack. He still needed to investigate.

There was magic in the air the closer he got to Vale, and there was something in the area that wasn't…completely natural.

His meeting wasn't until much later, and he wanted to use that time to investigate the forest.

The forest, he knew this was where his brother had been found, and where his hammer had originally landed. As he walked through the forest, he wondered were that old relic had ended up. Thor didn't have it on him when he found him, not that it mattered, there wasn't anyone who could lift. It was probably at the bottom of the ocean.

Reportedly the area had attracted Grimm when the hammer was here, for whatever reason they were drawn to it, but now, he saw only one Beowulf which he killed with ease.

He found what he believed to be the crash site, but the it didn't look like it had been. The trees were much larger than the surrounding area, like a much older forest.

The crater was empty, of hammer or Grimm spawning pits. So…at least the dream hadn't been literal.

A swishing of wings broke his thoughts away from the crater, and a black feather floated down. It was one of the two and he didn't care to see either.

"So." A woman's voice called "Have you seen my Grandchildren today?"

"Raven." He turned in the direction of her voice. "What do you want?"

"Straight to the point, I like that." She said, "I understand you are something of a master of magic?"

"I am…or I was." He said, "Not much good for more than card tricks these days."

"And you don't have a Nordic tome that will reveal anything you want about the present?"

"Hmmm." Loki hummed "So you know about that." He put his hands behind his back and slide concealed daggers down his sleeves. "Well if you know that, then you know I haven't dropped the hammer on you with law enforcement."

"Yes, but I'm not here about that, I just wanted to know if you had the ability to confirm what I want to trade with you."

"And what is that?" He sneered.

"You have to agree to help me first, as you know if I tell you, all you need is that book and I'll be useless."

"That will depend on what you need and what you tell me, if I deem it worthy of my aid."

"It's not going to hurt anyone you care about if that's what you're concerned with."

"I see." He said "And is it going cause harm to me, my image or my livelihood?"

"No." She said.

Loki was astounded how much she looked like Yang, hair and eyes aside. They even looked close in age, which brought up a question he'd long had on the humans of this worlds aging rate. But her eyes were so different, not the color although they were different, but in tone. Yang had very caring eyes, compassionate and kind eyes. Ravens were as hard as steel, sharp as a flint, and cold as Ice.

"Well then, tell me what you are after."

Raven grunted in frustration but said "Magic."

"You mean the maiden's." He said "Those are the last pieces of magic on this world."

"No." She said "The relics power, it's still out there."

"Oh?"

"Your brother destroyed the containers, not the power, I'm certain you already know this."

"Yes, although it latched onto my brother pretty well."

"You and your brother are unique and you know it."

She seemed quite well informed for someone who'd dropped off map for some time. But patience was important.

"Maybe it's better that the magic is spread out over the world." Loki said, "One person with that much power…it could be very troublesome…for my bottom line."

"Your world wealth is nothing to what could be done with that power." She said, he could tell she was getting aggravated.

"Well you better be offering something very tantalizing to get me to help you." The expression on her face was rather fun. She knew, as well as he did, even a mild clue could give it away and he'd just leave her hanging. Granted, Loki thought she might threaten him with physical violence. While he was no slouch, there was little doubt in his mind who'd come out ahead in a direct confrontation between the two. But direct wasn't exactly Loki's style.

"Well…" she said "How about I tell you about your brother?"

If Raven was closer to him, she portably would of seen a noticeable clench in Loki's jaw. "What about him."

"He's alive."

Loki almost bolted in this moment, feeling like he had all the information he needed. But Instead, he stood his ground. If she knew he had the Book of the Present, then she had more to tell him. Because if it was just that, then he didn't need her anymore.

"And?"

"Well, I'm certain you could find him, but I don't think you'd do him much good without your magic?" She said. "I'll come find you in two days." She turned to leave "Do your own research into it, and you'll see what I mean."

And with that, Raven vanished. But not in the manner she normally did, which really gave Loki a start. She didn't create a portal or turn into a bird. She just faded like smoke. A trick he used to be able to do himself.

She had magic skills now. Reaching into his coat he pulled out the tome and quickly wrote in it.

"Where is my brother?"

* * *

 **AN: So that's the end of this story, really more a set up for another one, which is being worked on now. I might re-write this sooner rather than later, and trim some of the fat and change some things.**

 **So there are three things in the works now.**

 **The Loki story, that will take place before this largly, then show what happens after this.**

 **A Raven focused Story in the same setting as this**

 **And the Re-Write of this.**

 **So which, if any, would you rather see first.**


	26. Re-Write Note

AN: This is not an update on this story. But just a notice that a re-write is being posted in the Cross-over section. What I'm trying to do is make cut down version of this story for the squeal, which I'm also working on. The goal is to cut the fat, which I'm not sure I can do, but I'm hoping to full off a more stream line story.

The "New" story is going to be posted in the X-over section.


End file.
